


Timeline of Forever

by PikaPixie



Series: Timeline of Forever [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Excessive Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gaara in puberty, Hurt/Comfort, I wrote this a long time ago, Pre-Canon, but a decent parent eventually, but also sadness, but not as good as my current explicit gore, cuteness, mostly - Freeform, no romance yet they're like nine, pretty explicit gore, shit parents, theyre twelve by the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 15:20:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 198,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6615604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PikaPixie/pseuds/PikaPixie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To think: Gaara's future was determined by the people who feared him, hated him. Even when he lost everything, if he had just received compassion... but no. He was alone. If one child had tried to change that, would anything be different? Follows main story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How they met

The ball floated slowly back down to the ground, cushioned by the swirling, lazy sand. The other kids gasped as it drifted into his hands- that boy's hands- the one their parents forbade them from even looking at. Now that Fumiko got a good look at him, now that he wasn't hiding his face, she realized that… he didn't look particularly bloodthirsty or murderous, like her mother had claimed.

He held out the ball, a shy smile on his face.

"Here," he said.

"It's that Gaara," Fumiko's friend Yoshiki hissed.

"He's so creepy," another, the goalie, cried. Gaara's eyes widened slightly as if surprised.

"Yoshiki-" Fumiko whispered.

"Let it be, Fumiko," he said sharply. "You can defend the losers, but even you know he's dangerous."

"But Yoshi-"

Gaara held out the ball again abruptly, and the other kids all screamed as if under attack, turning to run away. Fumiko gasped and moved to the side as she almost got trampled, but Yoshiki took her by the wrist to run.

"Wait! No, wait!" she heard Gaara mutter and thought, oh, no.

Fumiko cried out when she felt the sting of flying sand on her foot, and she was jerked from Yoshiki's hand. He spared a horrified look back, but didn't stop. She hit the ground hard, chin clunking against the dirt. Fumiko was dragged backwards, skin scraping against the sand, twisting to look at him. Fumiko locked eyes with the boy.

He was… frightened? What the…

She realized that this was probably why he was so rejected- not bloodthirsty, as many would say- but uncontrollable. She wrenched her body around, trying to tug free, but it was too late.

"Never again!" he yelled, and the sand rose up around him. Fumiko couldn't make herself scream.

I'm going to die.

"Gaara, no!"

Sand blasted around her, getting in Fumiko's eyes and mouth and nose, but it never hit her with the force it was going to. Looking up, she saw somebody- she wasn't sure who, her ears were still ringing and she was scared- in front of her.

The sand released.

…

She was hiding.

Fumiko had run as soon as Gaara let her go, but she had only gone around a building corner before she stopped. Fumiko peered around the corner, watching. She couldn't hear what the two were saying, but Gaara looked miserable.

After a few minutes, the man who stopped him winced and gripped his injured arm. Gaara tried to help him, but the man just shook his head and smiled before disappearing into a side street, leaving Gaara alone. His head stayed down, and he looked like he wanted to cry.

She watched, not sure why. She was scared that he would lose it again, use his powers, but…

He stood there, still as a statue, surveying the sand scattered across the ball field. Fumiko gasped and pulled her head back, slamming her back into the brick behind her.

"H-hello?" he called, and Fumiko twitched. "Who's there?"

Fumiko shook and wondered how quickly she could run, but then she remembered failing to run away already. She didn't move.

"Come out!" he commanded.

Slowly, she obeyed, peeking out first her head, and then the rest of her. Her knees were wobbly, but she managed a weak wave in his direction, smiling sheepishly.

"Hi," she said dumbly. Gaara's eyes searched hers for a minute before widening in recognition.

"You're that girl," he said.

Fumiko's fear dissipated somewhat in favor of a sudden defensiveness. "That girl has a name, you know," she chided. "I'm Fumiko. I'm also fine, by the way."

Fumiko froze.

Gaara blinked.

Then he gave a small, small smile and said, "Sorry."

…

"So, what's it like having a demon sealed inside you?" Fumiko asked, swinging her legs. She was so short- when she sat on the swing beside his, her feet didn't touch the ground. Gaara sat beside her with his bear on the other swing.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… does it talk to you?"

"You don't think I'm the demon?" he asked, surprised.

"What? No. At least, I don't think so…" she frowned. "I thought someone told me the demon was born with you… Right?"

"Yeah," he said. "Just… usually people think I'm going to hurt them."

"Like my mom!" Fumiko exclaimed.

Gaara smiled faintly. "Like your mom."

"You're nicer than I thought you would be," Fumiko thought aloud. "Everyone makes you seem so- Grr!" she growled, putting her hands up by her face, bending her fingers into claws. "Rawr! I'm gonna kill you with my freaky sand powers! Die!" she lowered her hands. "But you're not scary at all."

"I wish everyone else knew I wasn't the demon," Gaara said wistfully. "Actually, I wish I was never born with it."

"Why?"

He looked at Fumiko like she was completely and totally mental.

"So everyone would accept me."

"Well that's boring," Fumiko found herself saying before she could think better of it. "Why would you want them to be your friends?"

"They're your friends," he pointed out.

"Not really," she admitted. "They're Yoshiki's friends."

"Yoshiki?"

"My friend. Those guys are really… I wouldn't hold out for them."

"But… Isn't it nice to have people to play with?"

"Yeah… but, if you were normal, do you think they would be your good friends?"

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe."

Fumiko swung her legs back and forth and raised her hand up to scratch her head contemplatively. She wasn't really very good with words, or good advice- she was having a pleasant conversation with Gaara after he'd almost killed her, after all- but she could try. Now that she thought about it, Fumiko could recall seeing him almost everywhere, watching them play.

"If they aren't good friends who accept you for who you are, demon or not, then they really shouldn't be your friends. Yoshiki taught me that."

"Hah," he muttered. "Easy to say when you have the option of having good friends."

"Hmm..." Fumiko murmured, thinking. That was a very good point. If she didn't have any friends at all, Fumiko might have accepted a less-than friend. But Gaara was so nice, he deserved a more-than friend. Fumiko's eyes widened and she smacked her fist into her palm triumphantly, startling Gaara.

"I've got it!" Fumiko yelled. Gaara looked at her curiously, putting his bear on his lap and leaning forward to see her face.

"Got what?"

"I know how to solve your bad friend idea wish thing problem!"

"Huh?"

"I can be your good friend!" she smiled smugly, pleased with herself for the solution. And it was true, Fumiko didn't really mind that he housed a demon, now that it wasn't attacking her. She was pretty sure that it would solve the problem, and give her a new friend in the process.

"What?" he said dumbly.

"We could be friends," Fumiko said. "If that's okay with you."

...

After a while, she realized it was getting dark. The last time Yoshiki or anyone had seen her was when Fumiko was almost getting murdered by Gaara, and she realized her family would be having simultaneous heart attacks right about now, along with Yoshiko and the neighbors. So she went home, promising Gaara she knew her way back.

When she got home, though, Fumiko kind of wished that she had stayed with Gaara.

"Fumiko! You're alive!" her mother shrieked when she stepped onto the threshold. Her, Fumiko's father, her little sister Mai, and Yoshiki were all huddled together on the futon, eyes red and weirdly puffy. When she opened her mouth to speak, her father cried,

"How did you escape?"

"Yoshiki said Gaara got you!" Mai said in a teary voice.

"Gaara didn't kill me," Fumiko said, and gulped. "He... he's really nice, actually..."

"What?" her family all screamed together. Yoshiki stood and strode over in a few long strides, grasping her shoulders hard. His face was angry, and his eyes were just a little bit desperate. Fumiko shrank away, but he didn't let go, fingers digging into her arms.

"You didn't," he said in a low, serious voice, "make friends with a demon."

Her mother gasped, burying her head into Fumiko's father's shirt, crying things like "My stupid daughter" and "curse her soft heart."

"He's not a demon," Fumiko said defensively. "He was just born with it."

"He tried to kill you!"

"Not really. You all just made him really upset-"

"He tried to kill you!"

"-because you were treating him like a bad guy," Fumiko finished. "He was just trying to give us back the ball, not attack us at all, not kill us. All he wants is a friend, Yoshiki! Can't you-"

A harsh sound slipped through the air, skin on skin, and Fumiko's parents didn't protest when she cried out and fell backwards, cupping her cheek. Yoshiki stood above her, a dark expression on his face, eyes hidden by his hair. Fumiko trembled, eyes wide as saucers. Her face was hot.

"You can't be friends with him," Yoshiki stated.

"But, Yoshi-"

"Enough!" Fumiko's father roared, and Fumiko flinched. She wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor and vanish, because her father looked mad enough to hit her just like Yoshiki had. "You've upset you're mother, you made us believe you were dead, and worst of all, you risked your life!"

"D-"

"Go to your room!" he yelled. His face was red. Tears stung her eyes as she stared at her family. Her mother and Mai made no protest, and Yoshiki and her father just glared down at her. A tear fell, and Fumiko scrambled to her feet before dashing past all of them to her room. When she reached it, Fumiko slammed the door and fell onto her bed.

.....

Gaara climbed the few steps up to Fumiko's house, clutching the bag of medicine to his chest. He had still felt bad for hurting his new friend, so he had asked Yashamaru for healing salve to help, because he remembered seeing bruises and small cuts on Fumiko's face. Tentatively, he knocked on the door. He was expecting to see Fumiko, but what he got was a boy that had been dragging Fumiko- probably Yoshiki.

"What do you want?" he said with hard eyes.

"I- I'm sorry about earlier," Gaara said, smiling sheepishly. He showed Yoshiki the paper bag. "I know I must have hurt Fumiko. I brought her some medicine."

Yoshiki just glared at him.

"Get out of here, freak. Fumiko doesn't want to see you."

He slammed the door in Gaara's face.

...

"I've got it!" Fumiko yelled. Gaara looked at her curiously, putting his bear to the side and leaning forward to see her face.

"Got what?"

"I know how to solve your bad friend idea wish thing problem!"

"Huh?"

"I can be your good friend!"

She must have been lying, to avoid angering him.

He sat on the wall, staring at it and adding to the darkened sand with his own tears.

...

"Who was that?" Fumiko cried, launching out of her room. She had listened to the conversation before realizing who it must have been. She slammed the door with a vicious bang. Yoshiki looked at her, almost guiltily, but satisfied and self-righteous. His eyes were hard and his mouth was set in a grim line.

What do you want?" her brother said stiffly.

"I- sorry- earlier," A muffled voice said from outside. Fumiko could only make out every couple of words. "I know- hurt- Fumiko. I- medicine."

"Get out of here, freak. Fumiko doesn't want to see you."

"Was that Gaara?" she demanded. "Was it!"

Yoshiki stared her down for a minute. When it was clear she wasn't going to back down, he nodded. Fumiko yelled out in frustration and ran past him, shoving him hard out of the way. When she reached the door, she heard her father yell, "Fumiko, if you leave, don't bother coming back!"

Fumiko left.

...

Her tiny feet slapped lightly against the stone roads. She had been running for almost fifteen minutes, checking every place she could think of, although she didn't know Gaara well enough yet to tell where he would hide. If he heard what Yoshiki had said- and there was no way he hadn't- Gaara would think she was a liar.

Finally she found him sitting on the railing of the city's borders, staring over the edge.

"Gaara!" she cried, and he visibly stiffened. His bear was nowhere in sight. He didn't look at her until stopped a few feet away, breathing hard and stumbling. Panting, Fumiko placed her hands on her knees and just tried to breathe again for a second. Gaara watched her almost coldly, but there were tears in his eyes and on his cheeks.

"I- Yoshiki-" she gasped for air. "He said it- without asking me," she forced out. "My dad made me go to my room."

Gaara's face shone with doubt, but he didn't say anything as she collapsed down next to him. Fumiko's young body wasn't made for that much running, and sitting was a nice change. She could feel sand thrumming and shifting under her fingers, as it did whenever she was near him, and her feet dangled over the edge. When she finally wasn't gasping like a fish, she explained.

"When I got back, my family and Yoshiki were really mad."

"Why?"

"Because... because I said you were nice," she muttered. Gaara winced a little. "Then after- ... a bit..."

"This?" he said, touching the probably-still-bright-red-hand mark still throbbing on her face lightly with his pointer finger.

"Yeah. After that, my dad sent me to my room. Then after a little while, you knocked on the door. I didn't know it was you, I was getting dressed for bed," she clarified. "But then, Yoshiki started talking... and I realized he was talking to you, and as soon as I knew, I ran out the stupid door looking for you."

She paused.

"And now I can't go back home." her eyes filled with tears. "Kami, now I can't go back."

"Why not?" he said, concerned. His body shifted slightly to watch her sniffle, but he made no move to comfort Fumiko. She guessed that he either didn't know how, or that he didn't know he was supposed to. She wiped away a few tears and it finally hit her that she was homeless now.

"My dad said that if I left, not to go... back..."

Her head jerked up suddenly as a whistling sound filled the air. She saw something shiny just in front of her face before Gaara's hand flashed and a wall of sand rose behind her. Muffled thumping sounds pounded the shield. The sand had automatically rose to protect Gaara, but Gaara, Fumiko realized, had sensed the attack and shielded her on purpose.  
...  
Gaara heard it coming.

Before he could really process what the sound meant, he raised his hand to raise the sand to shield her.

The sand blocked multiple kunai shots that would have killed her instantly. Gaara knew it wouldn't have killed him, because of the sand, but he still gaped when he saw the blades lying on the ground once the sand fell. Shiny and sharp, one aimed at Fumiko's head, three aimed at his back. He registered her shocked eyes, and jerked his head around to see the attacker.

Why? Why me? he thought when the masked man pulled out more. Why is it always me?

But he couldn't let the man fire again. Gaara wasn't very accurate with his abilities, it was lucky that he got the shield up so quickly the first time. So he stood and blasted sand at the man, cocooning him. With a shout, he squeezed it, and the sand spat the man out with that awful cracking noise bodies made. When it hit the ground, Fumiko screamed.

"Who are you?" Gaara demanded in a shaky voice, holding his arms to his chest. "What do you want?"

When the man didn't answer him, he glanced at Fumiko, who took a few edging steps toward the body. Gaara followed suit, and just before they reached him, Gaara saw it: a bandage on the man's finger.

No. He swallowed. Gaarra knelt and cautiously so cautiously reached a trembling hand out the the cloth blocking the man's face from view. He touched it, then, steeling himself, yanked it off. Gaara's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat.

Yashamaru lie there, dazed, blood coming out of his mouth and a cut on his forehead. He stared blankly at Gaara.

Gaara flinched. His eyes twitched and he trembled, clutching his chest. Gaara screamed in confusion, startling Fumiko, who stood beside the body, frozen in fear. Fumiko looked down on him in concern, but he could see that her eyes were drawn to the three thin trails of blood down Yashamaru's face. "Why... Why? Yashamaru... Why did you do it? I don't understand..."

Now Gaara's eyes welled with tears. His voice cracked. Gaara hunched over in grief, pulling on his own hair to try and alleviate the crushing pain in his heart.

"Tell me why..."

Surely, if he loved Gaara, he wouldn't have...

"I thought... Yashamaru... If I'm precious to y-you... how could you?"

"It was an order." his voice was whisper soft, and he couldn't seem to meet Gaara's eyes. Gaara sniffled and looked at him. "You see, I was ordered to kill you, Gaara. By Lord kazekage. Your father."

Fumiko's mouth opened in a silent gasp and Gaara just stared. His tears flowed on their own in his shock. Fumiko dropped to her knees beside Yashamaru, across from Gaara, and reached out a hand as if to wipe off the blood before pulling back.

"My father..?"

Gaara felt absolutely sick to his stomach, and he swallowed hard, putting a hand over his mouth. Gaara made a choking sound, trying not to scream again, or puke. "Why me?" he gasped when he got his nausea under control. His head stayed down. "Why would... my father..."

"You were born with the Shukaku." Yashamaru said. "A living sand spirit inside you. All these years you have been watched and studied... as part of a great experiment. It became clear that you could never control it, the Shukaku that possesses the power of the sand itself. The day is coming when your existence will become too dangerous for the village. It had to be done before then."

Finally Gaara looked up at him, tears in his eyes, and smiled bitterly, but also in relief, because that meant he still... Yashamaru still... But his father... He could feel Fumiko's hand on his arm as she reached over the soon-to-be-corpse. Her small voice trembled. "Gaara..."

"You had to obey my father." Gaara said. "You didn't have any choice."

"You're wrong." Yashamaru said with a faint, ironic smile. "I had a choice."

Flashing 'pain' shot through Gaara's veins hand in hand with surprise. He stared down at his uncle, eyes wider than he thought they could be, at the man who taught him about love and wounded hearts. He stared back, and Gaara wondered if, had he been more conscious, Yashamaru would have sugarcoated it. What is he... saying..?

Fumiko's grip tightened.

"Yes. Lord Kazekage made his wishes known to me," Yashamaru admitted. "But... I could have refused if I had chosen to."

Gaara's breath hitched and he tried to breathe.

"I suppose it's because... deep in my heart... I hate you, Gaara."

Gaara's heart almost stopped.

"...I've always hated you."

"Gaara," Fumiko said. His head jerked up spastically and he saw her and realized Yashamaru had aimed at her, too. Furiously he wiped an arm over his eyes, scraping off tears in an attempt to not seem so weak. However, more fell to replace them. "I don't think..."

"My sister died bringing you into this world. I can't forgive you for that." Yashamaru's eyes were longing and dull. He stared up at the sky. "I told myself that you were all that was left of her. And since I loved her, I should love you. I tried. But I never could. It wasn't her choice to have you. To be made a human sacrifice. And so she died, cursing this village. The day she died... I felt a wound in my heart that I knew would never heal."

He paused, taking a breath.

"Your name is... the one your mother gave you. Your name is Gaara, a demon that loves only itself, as you must love no one else. Care for no one's existence but your own. Fight only for yourself. In that way, you will be sure to survive."

Fumiko's hand was warm through his shirt.

"This is the dying gift your mother left you. But not out of maternal affection. It is not from love that she gave you your name." Yashamaru's voice turned almost harsh. "It was from her undying rage at this village- it was part of her curse that you should survive and grow."

Gaara cried out, trying to voice his own feelings. His eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he wanted to pass out.

"Her hate lives on in you. You were never loved, Gaara."

"Gaara, please-" Fumiko said, but Gaara couldn't really hear her anymore.

"Never."

"But... Fumiko..." Gaara muttered. "She..."

Yashamaru reached for his jacket and Fumiko had to let go of Gaara's sleeve. Unzipping it, there was a spark as the papers pasted to his body lit up. Gaara didn't realize what it was until it was too late, caught up in grief like he was. The spark burned.

"But now..." he smiled softly, and Fumiko screamed, realizing too late, too late. Gaara still didn't understand. "It's over."

There was quiet as sadness drowned out Fumiko's ringing screams.

"Please die."

"Gaara!"

There was a bright light, and something slammed into him with the force of a bowling ball as Yashamaru exploded with a ferocious bang. Gaara was knocked over onto his back, and the sand rushed to protect him. For a second, the world was just, noise, noise, and confusion, but then the blast died down, and there was just a deafening quiet.

Gaara panted and stared into Fumiko's wide eyes. At the last second, it seemed, she had jumped over the dying man- aiming to hold onto Gaara, because the sand would protect him.

She was on top of him, one hand pushing weakly on his chest, the other bent at the elbow on the ground beside his neck. Her hair was in his face, but Gaara didn't care because, Oh, God, Yashamaru had tried to kill them. Tears still tracked down his face.

They stared at each other for a minute.

Then, Fumiko broke into a grin.

"I cannot believe," she breathed, "that I didn't just die."

Gaara laughed, a painful, airy sound, but he was still laughing because this girl was a great friend to have. He tried to sit up, bracing one arm against the ground and one around Fumiko so she didn't fall, and pushed himself into a sitting position.

At the movement, Fumiko's face turned white, and she gave a mangled, half restrained scream. Startled, Gaara looked at her.

"What? What is it?"

"My... ahh... foot!"

He saw it, he saw it, and he didn't want to. One of her feet was burned, charred, partly melted. Some of it wasn't even there, disintegrated by the blast. Gaara almost threw up. The burn traveled up to just below her ankle, and from there, the skin was an angry shade of red a quarter of the way up to her knee.

Then he looked up, and this was no time to be having an emotional breakdown, dang it!

Yashamaru wasn't Yashamaru anymore, just a scattered pile of ashes and a few shreds of explosive paper. He forced himself not to cry and then turned back to Fumiko because she was alive and she needed help.

Her face was starting to sweat, but Gaara didn't know anything about healing besides the fact that medicine helped wounds to heal. So, apologizing profusely whenever she screamed, he picked her up bridal style to avoid touching her injured foot, and staggered up.

A single passersby looked, saw, and walked away.

Gaara made his way to any house he could, ringing doorbells and knocking on doors. With every face, though, was another slammed door, because some wouldn't listen to him, and some didn't care. One looked sympathetic, but the rest of the family did not allow her in.

After ten minutes of this, the adrenaline was starting to wear off, and Fumiko was giving small shrieks and moans at every movement. So, finally, Gaara had to go where he didn't want to go: Fumiko's house.

Her family would kill him, Gaara was sure.

But would they let her in?

"My dad said that if I left, not to go... back..."

...

He banged on the door with his foot, breathing hard and struggling under Fumiko's weight. If this didn't work, Gaara didn't know what else he could do but ring doorbells and knock on doors. And he couldn't take her back to his home- if his father had just ordered Gaara killed, him and a guest would not be welcomed.

The door opened, and a weary voice said, "See, Mr. Mitsuwa, I told you she would come back-"

Tired, puffy red eyes stared at him in shock.

Then, they moved down, and Yoshiki let out a yelp.

"Please, let me in," Gaara pleaded. "No one else will help her!"

Yoshiki swore when he saw her foot and opened the door. He glared at Gaara the entire time it took him to step in and have her family rush to their feet and put Fumiko on a futon, and learn that her mother was a medic, and get pushed away by her father.

"What happened to her?" Yoshiki hissed while Fumiko's parents tended her. She screamed and yelled, and Gaara felt wounds in his heart.

"I-"

"Get out!" her father ordered above the noise. "Both of you, out!"

They were ushered out the door, which slammed behind them. Gaara was almost crying, again, he could feel tears building up in his eyes.

"I didn't know," Gaara said. "My... friend betrayed me."

"What?"

"That's what happened. He betrayed me. On orders from my father, Lord kazekage, he tried to kill me."

"Why would your own father-" Yoshiki cried angrily, suspicion clear in his voice.

"Because of the Shukaku," Gaara said miserably. "Because I could become a danger to the village. He tried to kill me with paper bombs, but my sand protected us, only I guess it didn't cover us all the way in time."

"Damn right you're a danger to this village," Yoshiki fumed. Then, scowling, he turned to leave. Gaara didn't know where he was going, because Fumiko was still screaming, but he sped down the street, and Gaara was left on the porch alone. He slumped down into a sitting position, staring at his hands.

All of a sudden, Fumiko's screams seemed to triple in volume, and Gaara jumped. The hands he was staring at shook and blurred as he watched, and tears slid down his cheeks and his nose, dripping off his chin. Gaara clutched his hands to his ears to try and block it out, but he couldn't; and Gaara just slammed his eyes shut and screamed himself to block it out.

A few people had left their homes to see what was going on, but when the sand started whipping feet and lashing in response to its master's agitated state, they quickly went inside to pretend nothing was wrong. The sand swirled and Fumiko screamed and Yashamaru came unbidden to his mind, and Gaara's heart hurt, and for some reason, his head hurt too.

The skin on his forehead was bleeding into his eyes and the sand was making the house creak. Gaara wasn't sure what scared him more: the screaming, or the moment it stopped. It was abrupt and sudden, and it made Gaara's hair stand on end.

Gaara couldn't bring himself to try and go inside, not from fear of Fumiko's family, but from fear that he would see the last thing he could see before he snapped. Could a person die from that kind of burn? It seemed unlikely, but what did he know about healing? Or perhaps she had passed out from pain- either way, Gaara focused on forcing the sand to settle, and wipe the blood out of his eye.

When the door opened behind him a while later, Gaara almost fell backwards. Staring down at him with scary, glinting eyes was what Gaara assumed was Fumiko's father- he looked a little like her, with brown eyes and what might have been her smile had he not been scowling like that.

"Where did Yoshiki go?"

Gaara just swallowed and gave a shaky shrug.

The man's scowl deepened, if that was possible, and he looked at Gaara with something like contempt or fear, or maybe both.

"Sir... is F-fumiko alright?"

He didn't respond.

"Can I..."

"What did you do to my daughter."

It was not a question. So Gaara explained everything in as few words as possible, as quickly as he could. He vetoed the part where he killed a drunk man, and didn't react when the bomb was activated, but he told mostly the truth. As he talked, he could see Fumiko's father's face softening- like stone rather than a bomb shelter wall.

"You can come in," he said, "But I reserve the right to kill you."

Gaara didn't really want to tell him that he couldn't, so he just nodded meekly and brushed past him and through the doorway.

Blood. The smell of it permeated the room, and it almost made Gaara sick because, she hadn't been bleeding before, had she? But when he cautiously approached the futon, he had to bite down of his tongue to keep from screaming or just gasping.

Her foot was gone.

Fumiko's right leg ended a half inch above where the ankle would have been. The stump was wrapped neatly in cloth, and there was salve next to it that Gaara recognized as a medic-nin's blood clotting medicine. Fumiko herself was sleeping, and there was a light bruise blooming on her forehead where she'd been knocked out. Gaara forced himself not to look at the bloody saw-knife thing covered by extra cloth.

"Why did you cut it off?" his voice was small.

"Because it was dead. There were no nerves, or much skin left." her mother answered in a shaky voice.

"Oh."

Gaara pretended not to see the way she shied away when he glided closer to see Fumiko's face, or the wide-eyed look of terror aimed at him by the young girl that looked like her mother in the corner.

Fumiko's hair ruffled slightly as she breathed, a tangled mess of brown scattered by the wind of what could only have been a massive explosion. Gaara wanted to brush it away, but he didn't, because he was surrounded on all sides by her family. His hand twitched, though; just slightly. Fumiko's mother noticed, and Gaara couldn't tell if she was mad at him or her daughter as her eyes darkened.

"Will... will she be okay?"

"We'll have to see about getting her a peg for her foot," her father grumbled, "but yes- she'll be fine with some painkillers."

"Thank- thank you," Gaara murmured. He twisted his hands together uncertainly. "Fumiko- when she found me, she told me that you would not let her back home. I was so worried."

"Not that she cared," Yoshiki's voice said suddenly from the open door. "Not that she cared at all about what we had to say."

"She was just making sure I was okay," Gaara said, a little defensively. "I thought she didn't want to be my friend anymore, when she did. She found me... at a really bad time."

The thought made his eyes water, and he wondered for a second what might have happened had Fumiko not jumped towards him. She could be dead, obliterated, scattered into a pile of ash like Yashamaru. What would Gaara have told her family then? I'm sorry, but when your daughter ignored your wishes and left to come see me she got killed because I wasn't thinking?

"Why are you crying?" a tiny, timid voice asked. When Gaara looked up, he almost flinched at the intensity of the little girl's gaze. What could only be Fumiko's sister just watched him, still carefully tucked into the corner should he attack. "Is it because you're bleeding?"

Gaara, surprised, touched the would on his head. He had forgotten about it.

"Mai," her mother said sharply.

But Mai would not be deterred. She just eyed Gaara.

"Tell me."

"She almost died," Gaara said with difficulty. "and I don't want her to get hurt."

"But she got hurt," the little girl said with a demanding tone. "Does that make you sad?"

"I-" Gaara stuttered, confused. His brain whirred to comprehend what he was being asked. Little Mai looked at him with a scowl, still hiding, but that didn't undermine at all her fierce disposition. "... yes."

"Okay." the girl said, and seemed satisfied.

...

Later, after explaining the story a third time to Fumiko's mother, Gaara found himself seated as far away from Fumiko and her family as they could put him. Gaara assumed they didn't force him to leave only out of fear that he would lose control and kill them all. For the millionth time, Gaara wondered what his life might be like had he not been born with the shikaku.

Hours later, Fumiko's eyes opened, and the first thing she said was, "Ow."

The second thing she said was, "Gaara."


	2. The Golden Years

7

"I don't like this." Fumiko muttered to her father. She stared at the wood on her leg.

Her father had carved her a temporary prosthetic, with straps and a sticky sock that kept it on. He also got her a simple wooden walking stick for balance and in case it came off. Gaara was almost always there to help her walk, or stand, because the annoying thing fell off often.

It took almost a month for the leg and mangled skin to heal, and during that time, there was a lot of blood, yelling, and visits from medical professionals. Although he didn't like the idea, Gaara had managed to convince his father to help her. After all, it was one thing to try and kill a jinchuriki- but injuring an innocent citizen of Suma, and a child no less?

So now, after almost a month, the skin was still sensitive, but it wasn't painful or burned, no bone was visible, and Fumiko stopped waking up with phantom pains from the explosions. During this time, there was also a lot of Gaara at their house.

Mai didn't like him, but accepted him. Fumiko's mother fumed whenever he was near, and her father looked like he wanted to punch something. But they couldn't do anything, because their daughter always asked for him.

Her father frowned at them. Well, more at Gaara, because it was his fault that his daughter was turning into a stranger. She leaned on him, opting to abandon the walking stick by the door.

"Honey. It's only temporary until we can buy you a real one."

"It's ugly and uncomfortable."

"Fumiko-"

"Sir, if I could-…" Gaara trailed off sheepishly at the glare he received. While he accepted the medical help and painkillers, for whatever reason, he wouldn't allow Gaara to get her a prosthetic.

"Why not?" Fumiko protested. "I could get a nice, metal, working foot thingy. Not this itchy, slippery wood thing that hurts."

Her father just threw up his hands and stalked out of the room. Gaara knew from experience that the man had wanted to hit someone- him, preferably, but he couldn't. If Fumiko's parents weren't so petrified of him, Gaara knew things could be a lot worse.

"Gaara," she said quietly. "Do you think they hate me?"

Gaara started and looked at her. Fumiko's face was almost sad, which looked odd compared to the smile Gaara often saw, or the grimace he had seen more. She actually cared what they thought.

"Why?"

"Well… first I did what they told me not to. Then, when I come back, they have to take care of me and buy me things."

"They don't have to pay for things," Gaara pointed out. "They just choose to."

"Huh."

There was silence.

"Hey, Gaara?"

"What?"

"Can you help me get this thing off?"

"Sure, Fumiko."

…. 7

"Mommy, can Gaara sleep over tonight?"

"Absolutely not."

…7

"Hey, Gaara, look!" Fumiko cried, pointing up at the sky. Gaara squinted and looked up to see what she was going on about this time. Fumiko had a habit of seeing things and making them sound more exciting than they actually were.

"What?" he couldn't see against the harsh glare of the sun.

"The moon's out!"

"So?"

"But the sun's out too!"

"Fumiko, it does that sometimes."

She huffed and brought her hand back down to steady herself. Fumiko still wore the inconvenient wooden prosthetic, although now there were fish and flames and smiley faces drawn on it in ink.

"It's still cool."

"Of course it is," Gaara said placatingly.

They were headed to their swing set- the place they had met. Often times while they were there, they would watch the other children play, and they talked about everything under the sun. Gaara showed her new tricks every time his sand did something new, and she drew suns and stars and lizards on the frames and her swing.

Sometimes the kids screamed and ran away when Gaara's sand got too high or flew too fast, and sometimes the brave ones would tease them and make fun of Fumiko's leg. She didn't seem to care, though, and just told Gaara to remember that good friends were better than less-than friends.

When they arrived, the first thing Fumiko did was jump on the swing. She was still too short to touch the ground beneath her.

"So, Gaara," she said. "How come when I try and touch you, I can, but if somebody throws a ball at you, the sand stops it?"

The ball was still rolling away.

"I don't know." Gaara considered. "I think it just stops people from hurting me."

"How does it know I'm not gonna, like, pinch you or something?"

"Hm. I don't know."

"That's weird. But it's cool, I guess. It lets me poke you… is that uncomfortable?"

Gaara smiled. "A little. Not really."

"And when I flick you?"

Gaara frowned this time. "No, but it's annoying."

Fumiko just laughed.

"Love you," she said, as was the custom.

"You too."

….8

"Mrs. Mitsuwa?" Gaara called as he opened the door. Fumiko hobbled in behind him, so happy she was almost glowing. She was walking without the stick.

"What, Gaara?"

"We're back."

Fumiko's mother winced. She was getting more and more used to Gaara, and now allowed him over for dinner. Although she still wished Fumiko would be more sensible and get a friend that wouldn't accidently go on a rampage, she respected that Gaara cared.

"You know your father is going to be angry."

"I, don't, care!" Fumiko sang, turning in a wobbly circle. Her grin was ecstastic.

Gaara, after telling Fumiko's mother, had secretly ordered the prosthetic be made. Instead of playing, the two often went to Gaara's house so that the medical-nin could measure and cast for a prosthetic. The end result was better than Fumiko had dreamed of.

Made of shiny metal and some wood, it was sturdier than the other. Metal springs allowed her to walk more freely, and with less of a limp, and the chakra-infused sticky sock was more comfortable and kept the prosthetic on. Altogether, it was more comfortable and effective.

"Isn't it pretty?" Fumiko gushed. "It's shiny!"

"Yes, dear," her mother said with the hint of a smile. "It's very nice."

"And I don't need the walking stick anymore!" she cried happily. Taking a step forward, she did a wobbly impression of walking. "Once I practice more-"

Footsteps stomped behind Gaara, and he realized he hadn't yet shut the door. Just as he was considering slamming it in the face of the man- he would only ruin Fumiko's good mood- a low voice rumbled: "What is that?"

Fumiko stopped trying to dance.

"Uh... hi daddy." she said meekly, slowly turning on her prosthetic. Gaara would have been roughly shoved out of the way had his sand not stopped it. Her father cursed, and Gaara stepped out of the way of the door. When he was angry, he stopped looking like Fumiko. His brown hair matched hers, but other than that, Fumiko bore no resemblance to this hulk of a man.

"Don't 'hi daddy' me, Fumiko. What is that."

"It's my new prosthetic?" All of her previous giddy joy was gone. She was balancing on her new prosthetic, and aside from that, her mouth was set in a crooked line, the way it did just before she started crying. Gaara's eyes narrowed. Who was he to upset Fumiko?

"That is not your new prosthetic," he said. "Where's the wooden one?"

"With all due respect, sir," Gaara said, "I burned it."

It worked. He rounded on Gaara.

"Stupid freak!"

"Daddy!" Fumiko cried, but he ignored her.

"Why would you go around throwing her prosthetic away?"

"This one is better. The other one was not."

He fumed. Gaara would have flinched if he was intimidated by this man. Small as he was, Gaara knew he could easily beat him. It really wouldn't take much- but, no, that would make Fumiko even more upset. But his plan failed, and her father turned back to Fumiko.

"You're returning that," he said. "Now."

"Honey-" her mother tried.

"No! We don't need to owe this demon anything."

"Daddy!"

"Take it off!"

"No- wah!" she yelped in fear and shock as he reached down and grabbed the prosthetic in his big paw, trying to find the straps. There weren't any, and with a frustrated growl he yanked on it, sending Fumiko toppling backwards.

Sand whipped in from the open door. Fumiko's mother yelled in shock, but Gaara swished his hand and the sand formed a cusion a few feet above the floor. Fumiko oomphed mid-scream as her fall stopped halfway to the ground. Her father blinked and Fumiko opened her eyes, confused, until she noticed the sand underneath her fingers.

"Let her go, Fukuda!" her mother cried.

"As soon as this devil contraption comes off!" he spat and tugged on it. The other would have come right off, but the chakra held tight and Fumiko skidded forward on the sand with a yelp.

Sand dug and wormed it's way in between the prosthetic and Fumiko's father's hand, and slowly, it was forced away. Her father cursed and tried to push through it, but he wouldn't have had a chance even if Gaara wasn't angry.

"Stop it," Gaara said. The sand curled around Fumiko's waist and legs to gently set her back on her feet. Once she was balanced, it fell in a half circle between Fumiko and her father. It would jump at a moment's notice.

"Thanks," she said weakly, but Gaara just shook his head.

"Mr. Mitsuwa," he said. "Please do not hurt Fumiko."

"Take back that device," he said in a low growl, like the one he had made was better and this one was hurting his daughter. However, he kept a noticeably wary distance between himself and Gaara's sand. Because, while Gaara was the object of his anger, he was also a jinchuriki.

"This prosthetic is better," Gaara said in his scratchy, angry voice. "It doesn't hurt or fall off."

"We don't owe you anything!" he sneered.

"No, you don't," Gaara agreed. Fumiko's father seemed to shrink away from the fire in his eyes. "It was my fault she needed one in the first place."

Her father fumed and her mother just worried her hands, like she was trying to figure out what to do with herself. Fumiko just stood there, a little pale and obviously shaken. There was sand in her hair.

"Fumiko, do you want to come over to my house?"

"S-sure," she agreed.

Gaara held the door open wider, and Fumiko took limping steps forward. Gaara realized that the short tug-of-war between her and her father had probably been painful. When her father attempted to pull her back by the arm, his hand just poofed harmlessly against the sand. Gaara and his sand followed her out and slammed the door behind him.

"Thanks," she repeated. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her eyes downcast. She was hiding her face with her hair, which meant she was probably crying. Gaara didn't reply and just walked beside her. It wasn't a long walk to the kazekage's house from here, and they walked almost in silence the entire time.

"Was this a bad idea?" was the thing she asked him quietly.

"No." was Gaara's answer. She deserved the prosthetic, and a better daddy. (Not that he would tell her this, because she would either deny it or start to cry.)

There were other, irritating noises along the way that bothered Fumiko more than they usually would, because she was upset. The other children were like leeches, sucking out what little happiness the prosthetic left her with. It was the same group. Yoshiki was with them, but didn't say anything. He watched Fumiko with silent apology as the pair walked past.

"Hey, look, it's Gaara!"

"Ugh, why is she still playing with him?"

"Ooh, looking spiffy in your new foot." a boy with dark hair snickered.

"Why so sad, crybaby?"

"They're both cree- UGH!"

They fell.

"Gaara attacked me!" the girl shrieked. "He almost killed me! Mama! Somebody help!"

When they scrambled to their feet, Fumiko stopped, shivering. Gaara looked back in concern. Small, glittering trails tracked down her cheeks and dripped off her chin. Dark circles bloomed in the dirt.

"Fumiko, get a new foot!" one of the brave ones said. "That one's weird! Or does Gaara make you-"

"Shut up!" Fumiko screamed without turning around. She clutched at her arms, swaying a little bit as she balanced herself. "I'm having a bad day, and I don't need to deal with you bunch of jerks! So just go away!"

There was silence. Then, Fumiko started walking again, and Gaara had to run to catch up.

When they made it to his house, Gaara snuck past the cooks and stole chocolate, and gave it to Fumiko. This seemed to perk her up somewhat. They went outside to watch the day turn into night. This would be there first sleepover, and Fumiko's first time at Gaara's house.

"Sugar," she said as they sat in the yard eating chocolate, "is a wonderful thing."

...9

"Hello," Fumiko said when a girl wandered close to where they were squatting. Gaara looked up curiously from the beetle they had been looking at. The girl had light hair and blue eyes, and was probably a few years younger than them. Her eyes were wide and round, and she was shaking so badly she was having trouble speaking.

"H-h-hel-l-lo," she whimpered.

"Are you okay?" Fumiko asked in concern, standing. Gaara followed suit.

She squeaked. "Yes!"

"Well... do you need something?" Gaara asked, and the girl jumped.

"Um... U-um..."

"What is it?"

"I... I need to..."

"Spit it out," Fumiko said, and then spotted a group of kids several yards away, watching and whispering. She shook Gaara's shoulder, and when he saw them, he frowned. Was this a prank or something? When she saw his frown the girl panicked, and she looked like she wanted to dissolve into tears or melt into the ground or both. Fumiko sighed.

"What is it they told you to do?" she asked.

"Wha... I..."

"Go ahead," she said. "Gaara won't hurt you."

"Can I... t-touch y-y-your k-kanji?" she whispered without making eye contact. Gaara started and brought his hand up to his scar on instinct. Fumiko painstakingly coloured it with red paint every few weeks, at least until Gaara decided if he wanted to get it tattooed. Even he had to admit it looked better red than just as a scar.

Fumiko rolled her eyes. "They told you to touch his scar? What do you get if you do?"

"A... a pretty little m-music box. My m-m-mom can't a-f-ford one..."

Fumiko shrugged. "Your call, Gaara."

Gaara smiled a little and parted his hair with his fingers to show the kanji. When the little girl hesitated, he said, "Go on. It's okay. Music boxes are cool, ne, Fumiko?"

"Hai."

The girl swallowed and tentatively reached out a dark, trembling hand. Just before she would have touched skin, she hesitated, but when Gaara just smiled, she touched her fingers to the kanji. Whoops and cries of surprise rang out from the group of children, and when Fumiko looked over, they quieted. A few seconds later, the girl lowered her hand.

"Now that's a story, huh?" Fumiko said. "You're famous now."

"Y-yeah. Thank you!"

"No problem," Gaara said. He let his hair fall back to cover the mark.

She raced off to her friends, and they all chattered excitedly amongst themselves.

"They all looked so shocked," Fumiko said. "I keep telling people you're nice, but they never listen to me."

...10

"Hey, Gaara," Fumiko asked, and Gaara looked at her.

"What?"

Fumiko swung her leg from her seat on their swing set. Fumiko's feet touched the ground now, and so her shoe scuffed the ground. The other leg was pulled up on the seat in an awkward and uncomfortable-looking half criss-cross, although Fumiko looked perfectly comfortable. She tapped absently on her prosthetic.

"Can I have some of your sand?"

"Eh?"

"I'm gonna make a charm," she explained.

"Out of sand?"

"No," she said. "I'll make like a little pouch or something, and put it on a necklace. Then I'll put sand in it. A good luck charm."

"Why is sand good luck? We're in the middle of a desert."

"Well, you always protect me, ne, Gaara? So maybe sand will give me good luck."

Gaara quirked what would have been an eyebrow, had he had any. "That doesn't make sense."

She beamed. "It does to me!"

"Well, all sand is my sand. So just pick some up, I guess."

"Great! I'll make a charm." she said, tapping her prosthetic as she thought about it. "I'll be the luckiest girl ever, and when people ask me how I do it, I'll say, Nuh-uh, issal mine!"

...10

The next day, when Gaara met up with her after school, she was completely absorbed with something in her hands. She turned it over in her palm again and again. Gaara, admittedly, was a little curious.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's a walnut," she explained, holding it up. "It's also my charm."

"How's a walnut a charm?" he asked quizzically.

"I poked a hole in the top, see?" she said, holding it out for him to see. In the center of the nut, a hole about as wide as Gaara's thumb was carved into one side of the shell. "Now I just have to get the seed out somehow."

"You can't get the seed out of a hole that small," he pointed out.

"Well, it'll take a while, but I think I'll just cut little bits off until it's all gone."

"Or," he said, and willed sand to stream from the ground into the hole in the nut. It filled partway, and Gaara twitched his fingers. Fumiko cried out in delight.

"It's vibrating!"

Gaara smiled, just a little bit, as she held the nut in her hands and laughed. Moments later, the sand floated back out, and with it came the flecks and grains of the seed sanded down to nothing. It dumped on the ground.

"Cool!" she said happily. "Now I just gotta find a little cork or something to plug it. I'll be done soon! Thanks, Gaara! Love you!"

Gaara just inclined his head. "You too."

...10

She coloured it with gold swirls and lines like the shifting desert, and carved down a cork she found who-knows-where. (Gaara wasn't sure he wanted to know.) After threading some extra fishing line through the cork, she showed Gaara.

"Almost done," she said. "Can you put sand in it?"

"Why can't you?"

"Why can't you?"

"I asked first."

"I don't know, Gaara," she said dramatically, flinging her arms out. "It's just more lucky if you do it!"

"Huh," Gaara grunted skeptically, but willed the sand to go in anyway. Gaara was at Fumiko's house for a sleepover- the last time Gaara had brought her to his house, his father had tried to get him assassinated. Fumiko had brought the sand in from outside.

"Good," she said, satisfied when the sand filled the nut a little more than halfway. "Now I'll just glue the cork in."

Once she lined the cork with glue and stuck it in, she left it to dry on her desk overnight.

Over the years, she wore that necklace every single day, without fail.

...11

"Hi, Mrs. Mitsuwa," Gaara greeted as he came through the door. He didn't have to knock anymore. "Hi, Fumiko."

Fumiko looked up from the board game she was playing with Yoshiki in the living room and smiled. Yoshiki scowled, but he always scowled at Gaara. Fumiko's mother, who was sitting on the couch and watching them play, waved and said hello. Gaara closed the door and drifted over to sit by the game.

"Can I play?"

Yoshiki opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Fumiko said, "Sure!"

It amused Fumiko to no end when Gaara used sand to manipulate the die into helping her win. Fumiko's mother chided him good-naturedly. Yoshiki saw, of course, and scowled even more. Fumiko, of course, won, and Gaara just smiled as she busted out laughing because, hey, she hadn't cheated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, these chapters are kind of... weird. They're parallel. The bold numbers tell you how old they were, and these chapters don't necessarily occur one after the other. Just pay close attention to the numbers and let me know if I screwed up. I'm saying they were 7 during the Yashamaru incident.


	3. Stayovers

…8

Personally, Fumiko liked it better when Gaara slept over at her house. Gaara's house was nice, sure; but it was huge, and fancy, and sort of made her feel like a runty mouse in comparison. Not to mention that the last time she was there, she'd almost died. Gaara didn't really mind, because at least here he didn't have to worry about assassination attempts.

So she dragged the extra mattress over, because her mom said that Gaara, although he was allowed to sleep in her room, couldn't sleep on Fumiko's bed. Personally, Fumiko thought that was a stupid rule. What was it with beds that freaked parents out so much?

Either way, Gaara brought his bear, and Fumiko made popcorn, and they watched movies until late into the night- on weekends. Fumiko always ended up falling asleep first, and when she woke up, Gaara was always already awake. Fumiko found this a little odd, but hey, maybe he took naps all day at his place.

Today, the popcorn was too salty, but they laughed anyways when Wall-e tried to cover Eva with an umbrella and got electrocuted for his efforts. They curled up on the spare blankets in their pillow fort, because Fumiko always woke up in her own bed like magic. Though, she figured Gaara put her there.

Still. Magic.

"Oh! Ha!" Fumiko giggled, and Gaara just laughed.

"Why are they even in the rain?" he wondered. Fumiko gasped and whirled to face him.

"Oh my gosh! You're right! They're robots!"

"Maybe they're waterproof robots?" Gaara suggested, and Fumiko hummed to herself in thought, mulling this idea over. Then, she shook her head seriously and tapped her finger to her chin.

"No," she said. "If they're waterproof, why would Wall-e cover her with an umbrella?"

Gaara was obviously stumped by this.

"Ooh! Look! This is my favorite part!" Fumiko yelped a few minutes later. "Die, evil computer!"

"Evil what?"

"Oops."

….

Hours later, they were on their second movie, and Fumiko's eyes were starting to droop. She'd long since taken off her prosthetic, and she was lying on a pillow on her stomach. Gaara just watched the movie, but honestly, the dancing crab was starting to blur as Fumiko yawned.

"Are you sleepy?" Gaara asked.

"No," Fumiko sniffed. "Sleepy is for babies."

"Well, are you tired?" he amended, shifting so that he was lying on his back beside her. He hung his head off the edge of the bed, upside-down, as he was wont to do.

"No." she said, then yawned wide enough to make her eyes water. She settled against the pillow, wrapped in blankets. Her mind was pleasantly foggy, she was warm, and she was drifting. "Maybe."

He lifted his head up to look at her.

"Well, you should sleep if you're tired," he said. "That way, you aren't slee- tired," he laughed when she glared at him, "tomorrow."

"Why are you smart?" Fumiko asked, flopping dramatically onto her back to point an accusing finger at him. "Because I want to watch the little mermaid, but of course you're right."

"We'll watch it next time," Gaara promised.

"Hmm. Maybe I will sleep."

"Maybe you will."

"Maybe I…" she drawled, eyes closing. It got a little bit harder to think the longer she stayed awake. She stretched her arms out above her head and let her hands flop over the side. "… will."

"Night, Fumiko," he said.

"Love you," she said sleepily.

"You too."

"Ngghh…"

…

Fumiko was slowly awakened just two hours later by a small, quiet sound.

She struggled to keep her eyes open while she battled sleep, and tried to recognize her surroundings. She wasn't, in fact, searching for green plants on the bottom of a wasted sea, but was warm in her own bed.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes to squish the sleep out of the corners of her eyes. Her legs were tangled up in the blankets, and by the time she was focused enough to think, Fumiko was close to falling off the edge of her futon.

"Hn," she grunted, and wondered what the sound was.

It was night outside, she realized a second later when she looked outside her window and saw that the sky was pitch dark. The noise was like the low hum of an air conditioner, or maybe the TV was still on. The lights in her room were off, and she realized the TV was playing: over and over again, it was stuck on the little mermaid's startup menu.

Why hadn't Gaara turned it off?

Gaara.

The fuzz blew out of her brain when she realized why the sound was so familiar: somebody was crying. Grunting, she tried to get up, only to really fall off her bed because Dang it, these blankets were trying to kill her.

When she stumble/crawled her way through the dark to Gaara's bed, she realized the source of the crying was coming from the hunched, curled figure huddled on the blankets. He wasn't under them, which led Fumiko to think that Gaara hadn't been planning on sleeping.

And he was sleeping. Was he having a nightmare?

The crying was soft, so quiet Fumiko wasn't sure how it had even woken her. Tears squeezed their way out of his closed eyes, and something in the ramrod-straight set of his mouth told her that whatever he was dreaming about, it was scaring him.

"Gaara," she whispered. When he didn't answer or wake up, she crawled up onto the mattress next to him and poked him in the shoulder. He didn't wake up, just kept crying quietly. Fumiko wondered if maybe he didn't go to sleep on purpose.

She shook his shoulder. "Gaara," she said in a loud voice.

His eyes flew open, and he shot up so fast that Fumiko was almost sent tumbling off the edge onto the floor. Like a traumatized child, he latched onto her faster than a snake, hugging Fumiko tight enough to suffocate her, crying into her shirt.

Fumiko was shocked, because Gaara never cried in front of her; ever. At least not on purpose. But he was crying, and so Fumiko hugged him back and let him sob something unintelligible into her chest.

For a few minutes, Fumiko just rubbed his back and make soothing noises- she didn't really know what she was saying, either- things like It's okay, Shh, and Everything's okay now. Love you, love you, love you.

Since when did Fumiko start acting like a mother?

Eventually, Gaara wound down into sniffles, and he was breathing hard, gasping like a fish out of water. Fumiko's shirt was soaked through, but she didn't really care. She'd just change later. In the meantime, though, Gaara was starting to become aware of his surroundings.

"Gaah!" he cried and jumped back, releasing her like a hot iron. Startled, Fumiko's arms dropped, and Gaara escaped to the other side of the bed. His eyes were wide, and although tears still traced down his cheeks, he looked more like a deer caught in headlights than a terrified boy.

"Fumiko! You're… awake…"

"Yup," she said. "And so are you. Do you want to tell me what that was?"

Hoarse nervous laughter.

"Did you have a nightmare?" she pressed.

A resigned sigh.

Fumiko huffed a little and crossed her arms over her wet shirt. He was acting like she was the child, when Fumiko oh-so-clearly was the mother.

"Not exactly a nightmare, no."

"Was it a panic attack? Mom talks about those sometimes."

"No- I don't think so…" he frowned. "No, I just… I can't sleep."

"But why not?" Fumiko demanded in an exasperated voice. Gaara was dodging the question, but Fumiko wasn't going to let him go that easily. She waited.

"Something… I think it's something to do with the shikaku."

"The demon's not letting you sleep?" she exclaimed. Gaara winced, and Fumiko realized she'd just called that out for the whole house to hear. Not that anyone was awake. "I mean," she said in a whisper, "The demon's not letting you sleep?"

"No. It… messes with my head."

"So it's making you crazy?"

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Yeah."

"Okay, well… Um." Fumiko muttered, scratching her head. "Is it always like that?"

"Mostly."

"So that's why I never see you sleep," Fumiko realized. "Because you don't. Aw, man, Gaara- what do you do when I fall asleep? Just lie there?"

"More or less," he said.

"Don't you get bored?" Fumiko said in wonder. "Just sitting there?"

"Not really," he said. "I just watch outside. All sorts of cool things there. Also, you talk in your sleep."

"I what?"

"In your sleep. You talk. When you're dreaming." Gaara smirked, a new thing he'd picked up from some of the village boys; a half smile that was sarcastic.

'I do not."

"Oh, yeah? So that whole thing about saving the fish by finding seaweed, you were really just talking about that while you were awake?"

"Shut up!" Fumiko hissed. Her face was probably as red as Gaara's hair by now. His scar caught her eye when he laughed- a thin lined love, like it'd been penciled on. Still a little ragged, it was as noticeable as Fumiko's foot was not.

"Anyway," Fumiko said. "I thought you needed to sleep to be alive."

"I do sleep," Gaara explained. "Just not a lot. And… not here."

"Why not? You slept here tonight!"

"And I woke you up," he pointed out. "You still look sle-"

Death glare.

"-tired. You still look tired."

"Nope," Fumiko said. "If you can't sleep, I won't."

"Fumiko. That's really stupid."

She flicked his forehead and he yelped. Then she said, "Have you ever tried telling it to leave you alone for a night or two?"

"Um… no."

"Maybe that's all," she thought aloud. "Maybe you just gotta be mean and say, 'Go away!'"

"I don't think so," Gaara said a little awkwardly, but Fumiko didn't listen.

"Go away, shukaku," she said. "Let Gaara sleep!"

He just stared at her blankly for a second. For a moment, Fumiko thought it had actually worked and he was talking to the demon in his head, but then she realized his face was blank because he was trying to come with something to say to that.

And telepathically call her stupid.

"Nothing happened," he said, amused.

"Whatever," she huffed. "It could have worked."

Moonlight shone through the window, and when Fumiko looked, she saw only darkness and stars and the moon. "What do you look at?"

"Stars. Owls. People. Sometimes raccoons."

"Can you show me?"

"Aren't you going to sleep again?"

"Nope," she repeated, popping the P. "It wouldn't be nice to-" she yawned- "sleep while you're here."

"But you're tired," he said.

"But you're tired," she repeated in a bad imitation of Gaara's voice, scowling. "Nah. Doesn't matter. How about instead of a sleepover, we call it a stayover?"

"Stayover."

"Yeah! No 'sleep' involved. Now, are you going to show me the owls or not?"

…9

"Gaara."

"No."

"Gaara."

"No."

"Gaara!"

"No!"

"Well why not?" Fumiko whined.

"I… why red?"

"Why is your hair red?" Fumiko shrugged. "I don't know. It just looks best on you."

Fumiko, at age eight, had realized that she loved art. Now, a year later, she was amazing at it. Fumiko was probably the only nine year old that made her own paint. Every day she improved, every day she painted, and every stayover, she nagged Gaara to let her fix his scar.

"But then it would be more noticeable!" he protested. "That totally defeats the purpose of trying to get people to stop teasing me for it."

"No it does not," she exclaimed, thumping the bed. After a while, as school went on and kids learned what love was and how to spell it, they started to realize that the sand-freak Gaara they hated so much had a scar that spelled love.

He hated it so much. So he tried to hide it, or avoid people all together. But when people started teasing him that Fumiko put it there, he just ranted and raved for hours on end and tried wearing a headband before realizing it made them snicker.

"Guys get tattoos all the time," she pushed.

"I don't want a tattoo."

"But this isn't even a tattoo! It's just long lasting paint!"

"Long lasting paint?"

"Yeah. Like a…" she thought for a minute. "Like a temporary tattoo. It lasts for, like, two weeks. You're not old enough to get a real tattoo anyway."

"Hm."

"Come oonn, Gaara, I swear it'll look better this way!"

"I don't know, Fumiko."

Fumiko scowled. Gaara was always stubborn when it came to new things. Red was the best color for Gaara, and Fumiko knew that if he stopped trying to hide it, people would stop railing on that and go back to fearfully ignoring him. Not that that was good. But it was better than this.

"How about the first time, we'll both do it?" she suggested. "I'll paint the kanji on my forehead too!"

"But then they'll tease you, too."

"Pssh. They tease me anyway. Come on, it'll be fun! We'll be like twins."

"Fumiko, we don't look anything alike," he said, but now he was starting to look uncertain. Sensing that he was about to give up, Fumiko smiled sweetly in that way that made her look like an adorable puppy. He puffed out a breath.

"Fine," he said. "But only if we both do it."

"Okay! Let me get my paintbrush!"

"You brought your paintbrush?"

"And my paint, too!"

….

"Okay, hold still."

Fumiko gently brought the brush down on the tip of a kanji stroke. Carefully, she swept it upward, covering the scar with lines of red. Gaara made a little surprised sound.

"It's cold," he said.

"I said hold still."

...

"Why do I have to hold the mirror?" Gaara complained. "My arms hurt."

"It's been like two minutes. And I need both hands to paint." Fumiko replied.

She watched her progress carefully in the handheld mirror, one hand holding her hair up, the other steadily tracing out the symbol on her forehead. She used Gaara's as a reference point. Both of them were sitting on her bed, and it was early in the morning.

Hers was going to be a pretty deep blue color, like the sky on a cloudless summer day. She painted the brushstrokes slowly, and when she was done, painted over it again. The whole process took almost ten minutes.

"Done, Gaara," Fumiko said when she finished. "Does this look okay?"

Gaara dropped the mirror like a hot iron onto the blankets and sighed, flopping his arms down dramatically. Fumiko kept her hand on her bangs as she waited for the paint to dry.

"Quit whining. My arm is still up."

...

"The paint is stained on my skin," Gaara said in wonder, rubbing the mark. It didn't smear or flake. It was the morning after they painted the kanjis, and Gaara was standing in front of Fumiko's mother's full-length mirror. "It doesn't even look like paint. It looks like my skin."

"That's the point," Fumiko said. In truth, she'd been a little worried that the paint wouldn't set- it was an expirimental batch she'd been working on, made with grass that made any color seep into your skin. Any color. It was odd. But she'd made it for this specific purpose. "Doesn't it look cool?"

"... It looks better than before," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what?" Fumiko said with a grin. She was standing next to him, pinning her hair back so that the kanji was clearly visible. Their kanjis were nearly identical- Fumiko was preening, and she knew it.

"I said it looks fine," he replied.

"That is not what you said! Fumiko sang. "Just admit it: I was right!"

Gaara opened his mouth to answer, but it was just then that Fumiko's mother opened the closet dooe. Fumiko spun around to show off her clips and painting.

"Look, mom!"

"... I'm going back to sleep," she sighed and turned back around, closing the door shut behind her. Fumiko giggled and turned to Gaara, who was holding in his own laughter. It was a Saturday morning, and Fumiko was planning on peacocking for all she was worth.

...11

"Fumiko, are you sure-"

"It's a stayover, not a sleepover," Fumiko said for the eighth time that night. This time, they were at Gaara's house. It made Fumiko a little nervous- after all, assasins tried to kill them on a regular basis- but the room was full of sand and Gaara locked the door.

"I know, but it's really okay if you go to sleep," he said nervously. He fidgeted on the bed. Fumiko frowned slightly and watched him with concern. His mouth was set in a line and Gaara's body was stiff and rigid as a board.

"Gaara, is something wrong?"

He flinched. "No."

"No?"

"No."

"Sugar," she sighed. "Gaara, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he said.

"Don't lie, Gaara. That's bitter and you know it." she said, and put a hand on his shoulder. Then she started. Carefully, she brushed her fingers over the skin of his neck. Her eyes narrowed.

"'Ey," she said, "Why are you wearing your sand armor?"

Gaara sighed.

"Just... in case."

"Gaara, what are the chances of being attacked again? Especially when I'm here... You live here all the time and don't get attacked. What's got you so worried?"

"It's probably nothing," he said. "I'm just being stupid."

Fumiko's eyes widened.

"How do you know?"

Gaara stared at his hands. Fumiko looked around anxiously, as if somebody with a kunai knife and mean intentions was going to materialize and jump them.

Gaara was avoiding the conversation, which usually meant he knew something that Fumiko did not.

"But, Gaara, the sand protects you. Why are you so worried?"

"Don't worry about it." he said. "Do you want to play a board game, since you won't go to sleep?"

"Gaara-"

He looked at her, eyes pleading. The kanji peeked out from under his hair, and he was forcing his mouth to curve upwards. His toes scattered the sand on the ground, making little holes in the pile underneath him.

"..."

"Okay, Gaara," Fumiko conceded. "Let's play a board game."

...

Fumiko learned a lot about the stars in the time she knew Gaara. His habit of staring out the window instead of sleeping lead to him knowing a lot about the night sky. She knew Ursa major, the big dipper, she saw nebulae and constellations of bulls and pegasi and crabs.

Gaara didn't really talk on his own about it, but he answered every question Fumiko asked him, and explained when she couldn't see anything but a bunch of dots.

Fumiko had even seen Mars and Saturn, along with a single shooting star. She hadn't seen a lunar eclipse yet, but she was still hoping to someday.

Tonight was a night in which the two sat on the windowsill and watched the stars. Gaara was still tense and didn't say anything, and Fumiko doubted he was really watching the stars. After the board game lost it's excitement, they watched the night.

Fumiko rested her cheek on the glass, staring at all that black and yellow, tracing shapes and kanji when her breath fogged the glass. For some reason, she drew a throwing star with her fingernail.

She quickly wiped it away before Gaara saw.

An hour passed, then two; then Fumiko was starting to drift off. They weren't doing anything, and counting the stars was beginning to lose any and all entertainment value. Gaara just stared out the window, unmoving.

Fumiko's eyes slid shut, and she forced them back open. They slid shut again, and with an irritated snort she reached up and held her eyelids open with her fingers. After a while, though, her body relaxed as if to spite her. She saw Gaara, who stared out the window with a trained eye, searching for... for...

Fumiko's hands slumped into her lap, and she fell asleep.

...

"-miko!"

Fumiko's eyes shot open and she jolted awake, falling off the side of the windowsill as something slammed into her. Confused, she flailed sluggishly and gawked over the thing just in time to see a piercing bolt of light shatter the glass window instantly.

Shards of glass rained down, and a wall of yellow covered them like a dome. Fumiko's breaths came in short bursts as she rotated her head around, trying to process what was going on. She was still half asleep.

"Gaara- what the- sugar?"

Gaara pulled himself to his feet quickly, and the sand dome rose to accommodate him. His face was unreadable and blank the way it was just before a fight. Fumiko pushed herself up onto her elbows before realizing she couldn't stand- she wasn't wearing her prosthetic. That, she had stupidly left by the door, not the sill.

"Stay down," Gaara said, and the sand in front of his face slid open on both sides. Right away, the sand immediately shot out to attack something.

Fumiko yelped when shuriken shot in, but the sand just drained from around her to cover her like an umbrella. The weapons tinkled to the ground around her, and the sand swirled away in another direction. Fumiko grabbed up a star and looked up wildly, but it was already over.

Just as the ninja jumped in through the ruined window, he was swept up by a rush of sand. It started to circle, then close, around him.

"Look away!" Gaara yelled and Fumiko slapped a hand over her eyes just in time to hear him say, "Sand coffin."

There was no scream, just a sickening crunch and a sound like a wet pop. Fumiko shivered. The last time he had used that move, Fumiko had a split-second moment of vision from the sun in which she remembered with terrible clarity in that exact moment: blood squirting out of the sides of the capsule of sand.

This time, she knew better than to open her eyes.

There was a splashing noise, then a dripping one, and the soft shh of sand. Fumiko just sat and trembled and didn't open her eyes.

"He's gone, Fumiko." Gaara said quietly.

When Fumiko uncovered her eyes, there was nothing hovering in the air. The sand, and the body, was outside. Glass still fell without a sound from the frame, only to smash on the floor. Gaara stood, arms at his side, and despite being only eleven years old, he looked aged a hundred years.

She scooted over to the spot where the man had hung.

A large, misshapen splatter of blood bigger than Fumiko's head was pooled on the wood. Fumiko swallowed. She didn't feel bad for the man- after all, he'd tried like a few others to kill two kids. But still... the sight of it... Her fists clenched.

Fumiko's hand hurt. When she looked down, a thin line of blood was trailing down her wrist, and Gaara looked sick.

Fumiko was still holding the star.

...

Two weeks later, Fumiko demanded to know why the stain was still there.

Gaara held his hands up in surrender. "I just don't know how to clean it."

"I'm staying over," Fumiko said abruptly, and turned on her heel to head back out of the room. Gaara started and followed her out, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Wha- Fumiko, why-"

"Just come on. I'm getting my stuff. Then, we'll have a stayover. Here." she frowned for a minute, then suddenly smiled brightly. "I need to redo your kanji anyways."

...

While Gaara sat on the bed- the sill was still ruined- and waited for his paint to set in, Fumiko got to work. She told him not to look, and he didn't. Fumiko set out her paints and assorted paintbrushes, and dipped one into the red.

Almost an hour later, Fumiko was filling in a last bit of blue. She was spread awkwardly over her painting, balancing on one foot and one arm, stretching out her free hand to paint. Biting her tongue in concentration, she carefully swept out the lines and brushstrokes, colouring and sweeping and measuring. Fumiko brushed off some gloppy, extra paint, wiping it on her stained sheet of mixing paper.

She stayed like this until her limbs shook, and then she switched to her prosthetic and other arm. Fumiko had once been right handed, but now she was ambidextrous. She balanced precariously over the wet painting, trying hard not to fall over and ruin both her shirt and the masterpiece below her.

"Are you almost done?" Gaara asked. He'd barely moved since she sat him there.

"Almost done," she promised.

Fumiko reached behind her, half-squatting and half-stretching, and picked up the tube of texture paint. It was a special kind she bought for painting sand, rough, with glitter and a long-lasting dark shine. She painted like this for another twenty minutes, carefully folding the texture into the colors, peeking it out of strokes and over curves. Finally, with a flourish, she applied the last brush and rolled away.

Fumiko grunted, standing and hopping a bit to balance herself, then looked over her art with a critical eye. It was a slightly more realistic version of Suna's symbol, an empty hourglass with a detached top. It was outlined in blue and black, so it stood out a mile against the light, wooden floor. The inside was a paradox of colors: red, mostly; but interlocked with black, green, light pink, an orange, along with the texture paint.

The colors swirled into what looked like a rushing wave of fiery sand falling through the hourglass and crashing against the confines of the glass, like what Fumiko imagined a curling wave would look like if it hit a rock or a wall.

At least it didn't look like a splattered puddle of blood anymore. If she looked hard, Fumiko could see the stain if she tried, but she had carefully mixed rusty red into it and spread it out. If she hadn't known what to look for, she wouldn't have noticed it.

"Done!" she said, satisfied. "Man, I wish I'd done this on my floor."

"And an hour later," Gaara muttered, and dodged the colorful washcloth thrown at his head without looking. Fumiko grinned.

"You know you can look now."

"Is there slippery paint all over my floor? Because I don't feel like slipping today."

"Nah," Fumiko said cheerfully. "Just in the one place."

Gaara checked the floor anyways before standing. When he did, he didn't stretch like most people would have after not moving for almost an hour, just turned to see why in the world he'd had to sit there for almost an hour. When he saw the still-wet painting, his eyes widened a little bit.

"The..."

"I painted it," Fumiko said cheerfully. "Much better this way, ne?"

He nodded. "Definitely."

...11

It was another one of those nights where Gaara dozed off. He wasn't exactly sleeping, but he wasn't fully awake, either.

These were good nights. Usually, Gaara could rest for hours before either he fell into a deeper sleep- and Fumiko had to wake him up- or he would jolt awake on his own. Either way, the next day he was always rested and energized and ready to play.

Fumiko just watched him. It was hard to catch Gaara without a careful face- usually that only happened when Fumiko did something stupid or unexpected, or he was angry, or he was resting. Even when he was laughing and playing, there was always that carefulness about him.

Since he had drifted off on Fumiko's bed, she just sat on his spare mattress and waited for him to wake back up. Fumiko would let him rest as long as he was able- he hadn't managed to in weeks.

To keep herself busy, she painted her nails indigo and hummed to herself before shifting around impatiently. Fumiko couldn't turn the TV on or do anything loud- in his state, the slightest noise could wake him.

Maybe she could get some sleep as well. Due to the extreme amount of time they spent having stayovers, Fumiko only slept about half the week. Her own eyes weren't black like Gaara's, but the skin under her eyes was starting to darken. Judging from the rate of discoloration, Fumiko estimated that in a year or two it would get worse and spread to her eyelids.

She shook off the thought- after all, she was missing a leg, how much of a difference would it make if her eyes were just a shade darker than the rest of her skin? It wasn't like they would turn pitch like Gaara's- and laid down.

She didn't cover herself in blankets, because if Gaara had a nightmare or woke up, Fumiko would only get tangled in the when she tried to get out of bed. So she just laid down on her back quietly, careful not to make any noise.

She stared at the ceiling and thought of spinning cookies until the world faded.

...

When Fumiko opened her eyes again, yawning, she stretched.

A yelp and a thud later, she realized she'd accidentally punched Gaara in the face.

"Ohmysugar!" she cried and sat up, crawling over to the edge of the bed that Gaara had fallen off of. Her tiny hands gripped the edge of the mattress. Gaara was sitting on the floor with a startled look on his face, holding his nose.

"Good morning," he said dazedly.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were there or I would never have- good morning?"

Blinking, Fumiko realized that it was daytime outside. People strolled their way down the street outside her window with baskets and pets, or just by themselves. And Gaara was awake- how long had he been awake?

"Gaara!" she whined. "You know I don't like to sleep while your awake! Why didn't you wake me up?"

It was hard to tell, because Gaara was still holding his nose, but Fumiko could have sworn that, just above his fingers, a little bit of red bloomed.

"I don't know," he said. "'Cause you look nice when you sleep."

"Eh?" she said quizzically, wiping the saliva off of her cheek. Experimentally she patted at her hair and found that it was smushed onto one side of her head. Fumiko smiled uncertainly at Gaara and fingered her rumpled clothes. "Um..."

Gaara lowered his hand from his face. He shook his head. "Never mind. Sleep okay?"

Fumiko sighed dramatically and reached a hand down to help haul Gaara to his feet. When he did, he stood over her, and she was still on her hands and knees on the mattress. "Yup. But you'll wake me up next time, right?"

"Yes," he said with an amused tone. "Of course."

"Of course," she echoed. "How long did you rest?"

"I don't know," he said thoughtfully. "I woke up a few hours ago."

"A few hours ago?" Fumiko said and checked the clock. "Gaara, you rested for almost an entire day."

"I did what?" Gaara asked, surprised. "No way."

"You fell a-doze at... what, nine a clock?" When Gaara nodded, Fumiko counted the hours on her fingers, counting aloud. "-five, six, seven... err... you rested for almost... well, it's two PM now... so..."

"Seventeen hours. I rested for seventeen hours? How?"

"I don't know." Fumiko grinned. "But I betcha you feel much better now."

"Yeah," he said, and stretched his arms above his head before falling backwards. He hung his head over the side of the bed. "I'm not tired at all."

Fumiko plopped down next to him, arms over her head, and hung her head over the side to look at him. She grinned. Gaara saw the grin and his own smile tightened a little bit in anticipation. He was bracing himself.

"Can we go and plaaay?"

"Play what?"

Fumiko blinked her doe-eyes. "Do you wanna go build saaaand castllllles?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chappie for now! Will update more later. Hope you enjoy!


	4. Sneaking

Gaara sometimes wondered if Fumiko's constant state of extreme happiness was really normal, or if the explosion had knocked something loose in her brain. Because nobody could really be so happy in situations like this, right?

Fumiko smiled up at Gaara's stoic father, who stood with his arms crossed, staring down at the pair. It was the first time that Gaara's father had actually met Fumiko, mainly because Gaara had tried his absolute hardest to keep them from ever seeing each other. But when somebody who was supposed to be on official kazekage business was instead walking the same hallway as you, what was one to do?

The Yondaime stared down at her, impassive. His dark eyes shifted slightly as he tried to recognize this girl who was walking through the kazekage's house. Perhaps he thought she was a servant, or maybe a servant's child. Gaara knew, though, that if one thing about the situation confused his father, it was that this servant's child was wandering the halls with the jinchuriki.

"Hello, Mr. Gaara's dad," she greeted.

"Who is this?" he asked Gaara, completely ignoring Fumiko. Gaara didn't know whether this made him angry or relieved. Possibly both. Gaara looked at his father with carefully emotionless eyes. Fumiko stood just in front of him. If she hadn't been smiling the way she was, he would have called it protective.

"This is Fumiko," Gaara said clearly, "Father."

Although they didn't speak very often, Gaara was certain that his father had heard at least in passing about the strange village girl who hung around with Gaara, if he didn't remember agreeing to pay for medical expenses. Too many cooks had noticed the missing chocolates, not to mention the constant trips to the medic-nin.

"Hi," Fumiko said again with a smile and held out a hand.

The kazekage looked at the hand for a second, like he was wondering why it was just hanging there in the air. After a moment, Fumiko put it back down by her side like it hadn't been there in the first place.

"I've heard a lot about you," Fumiko said. "From Gaara, I mean. I already knew some, because you're the kazekage. But, you don't look as scary as I thought you would... you actually look a lot like Gaara."

The Yondaime's eyebrows rose into his hairline. Gaara winced. Not only was the kazekage being compared to his small, physically weak son, but Fumiko had basically just said that Gaara was in no way frightening. For a second, his father glanced down at her prosthetic, then his eyes traveled back to her face, almost puzzled.

"Does it bother you that he kills innocent people?"

The question caught Gaara off guard. Why had he brought that up? The look on his face was undecipherable. He might have been trying to chase Fumiko off, or to catch her in a bad place. He might have even been genuinely curious. Gaara waited nervously for Fumiko's response.

"About that," Fumiko said, pointing at his father. "You should stop trying to kill Gaara." She shrugged. "Anything else is an accident. Anyway, he tries not to. So, not really."

"Obviously, it must bother you," his father mused aloud. "Otherwise you would not have painted over the blood in his room."

Gaara started. Fumiko's smile faltered a little bit, but even her not-smiling face had the creases of one, and she didn't look upset. She bounced from foot to prosthetic in a hyper way that screamed I want to go outside. When she didn't answer right away, Gaara tensed and put a hand on her shoulder, fully intending to pull her away.

"Um, no," Fumiko said finally. "Blood bothers me a little bit... but not Gaara. He knows that." She laughed. "And even if it didn't bother me, it's not appropriate in the slightest to leave a blood splatter on your bedroom floor."

"Hm."

"So yeah," she said. "It was nice to finally meet you. Me and Gaara are gonna go play ninja now."

...

"So, the chakra system runs like this," Gaara said, running a finger from the center of his chest in a swirl. "Well, it's hard to really tell you about it... it runs everywhere. But there are certain ways to harness them and use them for fighting. For instance, ninjutsu. You've seen me control the sand. That's what it is. Only, I can control it with scary presicion when I use hand... Fumiko?"

"Hmm~?" Fumiko hummed. She was sitting down, tracing swirls on her chest and down her legs. Her eyebrows were creased thoughtfully, and she rubbed the line of skin that touched metal. the sock was pushed down under the prosthetic.

"Are you listening? Because you asked me to teach you stuff from Suna ninja academy and-"

"You stick to trees that way, right? With chakra in your feet? I've seen you do it."

"Um- yeah," he stuttered. "There's chakra flow through your feet... wait, how have you seen me doing it?"

"I may or may not have skipped school a few times," she said nonchalantly, still watching her leg like it held the secrets to life and the world. Gaara frowned, and his hand drifted from his arm to point at Fumiko accusingly.

"Why?"

"To watch you do ninja stuff. It's pretty cool."

"I thought you didn't want to be a ninja," Gaara said in exasperation. "So you didn't enroll in the academy."

"Nah," Fumiko said. "I don't. I don't know, I just don't want to be measured by my fighting capability. Not to mention that I think if it's not absolutely necessary, you shouldn't fight. No offense to you and your ninja-ness, though. That's just your way."

"So why are you skipping school to learn ninja things?"

"What? No." Fumiko scoffed and finally looked up from her prosthetic. She smiled at him in that way that made him think he existed for a reason other than hosting Shukaku. "I'm not watching to learn things. I just, you know, support you while hiding."

"Su- support me?" Gaara asked, startled. "What do you mean?"

"I've seen every one of your sparring matches, Gaara," Fumiko said. "And tests. And practice missions." she paused. "You're really good, you know. Way better than anybody else there."

"Huh?" Gaara said, and his finger dropped in his shock, and both arms hung at his sides like he was standing at attention. His heartbeat was loud and it felt like it was trying to escape. His ribs managed to hold it back. "How?"

Fumiko just smiled up at him in a pleased way. "I copy the important stuff on your little calendar thing down, like when you're using the bathroom or left it at my house or something. Don't worry, my grades are still stellar."

"Been to all my..." Gaara muttered. "How the..."

"And by the way, if the teachers weren't looking for the best cheaters, I would be very not happy with the floating eyeball of sand thing. But as is, that's a great way to cheat."

"How did you... the teachers would have sensed you. There's no way."

No way. Except for that she knew the way he cheated, which he had never told her, and that chakra paths allowed a person to hang upside down from a tree branch. And he had never shown her his school planner... Gaara had to wonder just how much she had learned by spying.

"Way," she said. "I'm not there for ordinary school days or anything, just the important stuff. I didn't tell you earlier because..." she gasped and smacked her forehead. "Sugar! I was never supposed to tell you any of that!"

"Why not?"

She sighed. "'Cause now you'll either tell me to quit, or you won't and then you'll know I'm there and act different."

"I would not act different just because you were there," Gaara blustered.

"You make people bleed, Gaara. You would have acted different if you knew I was there."

"I..."

"You know what, I'll just stop."

"Wh-what? Why?"

"Because now, you'll tell me about everything, right?" she said with a hopeful grin. "You never tell me how stuff went, just what you learned."

She struggled to her feet. Although she barely ever had trouble with her prosthetics anymore, it was still a bit of a show when she got up. It sort of looked like really fast yoga. When she was back on her foot, she grinned. "So can you tell me how things go? So we can celebrate without me having to be all sly on the go."

That explained all of the unexpected gifts she always just 'saw and thought about him' that she gave him, always coincidentally right after he got an A on a test or won an important match. That was a phenomenon that he had just assumed had something to do with Fumiko's odd ability to just know when something important happened.

"Sure," he said, shrugging coolly like he saw the boys at the academy do when a giggling girl asked them something. "You already know when all of my stuff is happening anyways."

"Great!" she said. "Now, about those chakra pathways in the feet. I had an idea."

Gaara blinked a little at her sudden transition, but just brushed it off as typical Fumiko fashion.

"What's your idea?"

"If you could teach me how to control my chakra," she said, "I wouldn't have to keep getting new chakra-infused socks for my prosthetic."

"Eh?"

"I could use my chakra to hold onto my prosthetic."

Gaara blinked. "Oh! Well, that's a little bit harder to explain..."

"Well then, we better get started," Fumiko exclaimed cheerfully. "Show me how."

...

Fumiko peered out from the gap between two seats. She was standing under the bleachers of Suna Academy's gym, where she had been for the past hour and a half. Gaara always seemed to be last for every set of fights, despite being grossly more powerful than any of the other students.

He was sitting at the very far end of the bleachers, all alone, elbows resting on his knees. His head was slightly lowered like he was looking at the bleacher seat below his feet, but Fumiko knew from experience and different angles that he was still watching the fight in front of him, analyzing his opponents for strengths and weaknesses.

Yes, Fumiko had said she would stop. Yes, her fingers had been crossed behind her leg. But in her defense, she had only fibbed because she still wanted to see Gaara's fights in person without him being nervous and reserved. Gaara looked like a total badass when he fought, if you would pardon her French.

She would have been closer to Gaara, but she stood underneath the mass of students on the other side of the bleachers so that the teachers wouldn't see her face in the cracks. It made her feel a little bit like a traitor, especially because she could hear their nervous whispers and angry comments. Fumiko was pretty sure Gaara could, too...

"Gaara," the instructor said in a semi-controlled voice. "You're up. You'll be facing Sugino Kenichi."

Fumiko assumed Kenichi was the boy directly above her that suddenly stiffened. His friends all winced above her.

Personally Fumiko didn't get it. Yes, the kids who sparred with Gaara sometimes bled. Yes, sometimes they were knocked unconscious. But usually, Gaara reigned himself in, and he never used Sand Coffin or tried to kill anyone.

Gaara just used that new trick he had learned, dissolving himself into sand and reforming in the small arena.

Shakily, Kenichi stood and stepped down the bleachers. The room had gone deadly silent, and Fumiko held her breath. She was, after all, hiding in a room full of trained ninja. She could hear every step Kenichi took, like a gong was going off, before he finally made it to the ground. He dragged his feet on the way to the center of the arena.

When he was there, Gaara just watched with his infamous expressionless eyes that gave nothing away. It gave him an air of total control over the situation. Gaara stood at the ready, legs spread apart just slightly, arms up, tensed to fight. The gourd they had worked so hard to make hissed with sand that spilled out of the top.

"If you are both ready..." the teacher said, "then you may proceed."

Kenichi swallowed, took a deep breath, and then released it. Gaara waited patiently for him to attack first. Gaara had confessed to her when they were ten that the fighting was more amusing for the Shukaku that way. If he pleased it in some, less harmful ways, it was easier to resist when it asked for blood, even if he didn't always succeed.

Kenichi made a mistake. He charged straight at Gaara in what looked like an attempt to use taijutsu.

The sand leaped up to block the first punch, and then the kick, and then the second punch. After that, it blocked a surprisingly powerful jutsu after the boy's hands flew. Fumiko herself only caught a few of the hand seals. The result was an explosion of smoke. Everyone in the bleachers gasped and leaned forward. Kenichi jumped back, breathing hard.

"Did he get him?" one girl whispered.

"Maybe."

"I hope so."

"I doubt it."

"But sand doesn't stop explosions!"

"Yes it does," Fumiko whispered under her breath to herself.

The smoke cleared, and Fumiko saw exactly what she had been expecting to see: the sphere of sand. And then it did exactly what she was expecting it to do: split apart to show Gaara just before he raised his hand. The sand flew forward. The students gasped and one- was she sobbing? Fumiko rolled her eyes.

The fight was over quickly. The sand hit Kenichi in the stomach, then swept his legs out from under him. Kenichi still managed to struggle to his feet and charge at him again, but instead of waiting for him to get there, the sand just swatted him aside halfway. Kenichi slammed into the far wall hard, then fell. The kids screamed, but it wasn't like they hadn't thrown people into walls with jutsus during their battles.

Kenichi stood, swayed, then collapsed.

The teacher gulped and announced that Gaara was the winner.

Gaara crossed his arms. Instead of disappearing into sand back to his seat, he started walking toward the part of the bleachers Fumiko was under, the part covered in kids. When he got closer, the students realized he was walking towards them, and they dissolved into panicked whispers. Fumiko wondered what was going on.

Gaara stepped onto the first bleacher. The students closest to him scattered. He stepped onto the second and third one, and kept stepping until his feet were level with her neck. His classmates parted like the red sea. Then, he squatted down to look in between the bleachers, and Fumiko realized she'd been spotted. She blinked up at him. His pale cerulean eyes stared back.

"Hi," she said sheepishly, with a little wave.

"Hey," he said back.

Most of the students now- including Kenichi, who had been revived- were bending over to see under the bleachers at what Gaara was looking at.

"How'd you know?" she asked, turning around and gripping the bleacher above her with her fingers before heaving herself up. She wiggled out, and Gaara took her hand to help her up. Fumiko wanted to laugh at the confused muttering throughout the gym- even the teacher looked flabbergasted.

"Once I knew what to look for," Gaara said, "I saw you coming into the gym before sparring matches through my classroom window."

"Sugar. So you knew the whole time?"

"More or less. Did I act different?"

Fumiko laughed. "No. Oh well. You still have matches today, yeah?"

"Correct."

"Then I guess I'll just sit in the bleachers like a normal person."

"That's Fumiko," she heard somebody say.

Gaara gave the smallest hint of a smile and turned to head back to his lonely little bleacher seat. Fumiko beamed and followed him there, because he wasn't going to make her leave! Now she could congratulate him or cheer him on for real and not just in her head.

When they started to sit down, though, the teacher seemed to snap out of whatever trance he'd been in. He walked towards them in what was probably supposed to be an authorative manner, but all it did was give Fumiko an idea for a new painting. Soon after she was not really paying attention.

"Excuse me, young lady," he said, suddenly in front of them. Although, he was more just to the right of Fumiko, staying away from where Gaara sat on her other side. "Why are you here?"

"Support from a distance," she said, smiling, and pointed at Gaara.

"You can't be here."

"Well why not?"

"Because you aren't a student here," he replied.

"It's no problem really, I'm not missing much at my other school."

"Other- young lady, you can't be here. It's against the rules."

"It's causing no harm," Fumiko reasoned. "I mean, I've been coming here for every spar or test Gaara has for the past... what... two years? And it's hasn't bothered anyone here."

"Two-!" the man spluttered. Then his eyes hardened. "You have to leave."

"Noo~" she sang. "But I will once you guys are all done here. Sorry for any problems it might cause."

"I said leave-" he barked, and made to grab Fumiko's arm. She yelped.

His hand thumped on sand. It dispersed just as soon as it blocked the attempt, just like Gaara's protective sand did for him, only she knew that he was controlling it. The teacher's face immedietly paled. When he looked over her shoulder, he paled even more. Fumiko turned her head.

Gaara was staring hard at the man. Aside from his narrowed eyes, the rest of his face seemed expressionless, but anybody who knew Gaara knew that that particular face meant he was mad. Unfortunately, having been Gaara's sensei, he probably did know this.

"Please, don't do that," Gaara said in a totally controlled voice.

Fumiko turned her eyes back to the teacher and smiled. "So can I stay?"

"Um..."

...

After that, Fumiko was always there for his fights. They ignored her just like they ignored Gaara, but she was there on the bleachers when the students filed in to spar, and on the hallway bench doodling when he came out of his tests. Gaara hadn't realized just how much time she must have been spending at Suna academy until she stopped hiding.

"How'd it go?" she asked him one day as he came out of his classroom early.

"Good," he said. "I think I aced it."

"Great!" she exclaimed. "You got a B on your last one, right?"

"Yes."

"Then we'll celebrate with cake!" she announced. "Sugary sweet cake that I will make with my mom. Okay, well, I've got to get back to school now. I have a kanji test today."

"Okay."

She jumped off of the bench and hugged him quickly with a quick, "Love you!"

"You too."

"Bye!" she said, before releasing him and sort of running down the hallway. She wasn't very fast with her prosthetic. When she turned the corner at the end of the hall, Gaara shook his head and turned to go to his next class. He hid a smile behind his hand when he heard a crash and Fumiko squeak, "Oh, sorry!"

His smile dropped when he heard the, "You're that one-legged freak that hangs out with Gaara!"

"Yup, that's me," she said cheerfully. "Here, let me help you with- ow!"

Gaara was at the end of the hall before her cry had faded, and what he saw was not at all pleasing.

There were books scattered on the floor, presumably from the crash. Two boys stood, and Fumiko was sitting on her butt with a surprised look on her face. She was holding her shoulder. Predictably, there was no one else in the hall, because Gaara had been released early after his test. These students must have also been released early, or maybe they were just late.

The boy on the left was damned: his foot was still out in what looked like post-kick.

"Don't touch my-" the boy who had kicked her snarled. The boy on the right paled as he saw Gaara and shook the shoulder of the boy beside him, who looked up. A look of terror caught his expression. "...stuff..."

"Gaara!" Fumiko said, quickly pulling herself up to her feet, her hands at her sides. She smiled. It was genuine but tight with pain. "Um, I'm fine!"

"Fumiko," he said in his low voice. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened, Gaara," she lied. "I just ran into these boys here and I was helping pick up their books- ...and you're not buying any of this, are you?" she said.

"No."

Fumiko must have heard the death in his voice.

"No, Gaara," she said quickly. "They didn't mean it."

"Didn't mean it?" Gaara said. "It looked like they meant it."

The boys seemed too terrified to run. The just stared at Gaara with wide saucer eyes. Fumiko crossed the short distance between them, tugging at her necklace. She poked at his arm and tried to pull it away from where it was pointing at the boy on the left.

"Just bitter, Gaara," Fumiko pleaded. "They're just bitter. Lets go get some sugar, ne, Gaara? Do they have chocolate in the cafeteria here, Gaara?"

"No."

"Cookies?"

"No."

"... chocolate chip muffins?"

"No."

"Sugar, your cafeteria sucks!"

That was what made Gaara force his eyes away from the kid. His arm twitched. She saw him looking at her and smiled. This time, when she pushed on his arm, he let it fall. The sand hovering above his gourd fell back in. The student who hadn't kicked Fumiko collapsed, and the one who had just stood frozen.

"C'mon, Gaara," she said. "My kanji test can wait. Let's go find some sugar."

"And ice."

"And ice," she agreed. "Sugar and ice."

Gaara spared one last look at the boy he had almost killed, and when he felt the tug on his wrist, he allowed himself to be pulled away. But just when the boy seemed to give a sigh of relief, Gaara flashed him a shark smile. The boy looked like he wanted to cry.

There were a few spars he hadn't marked on his calendar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was interesting to write. I haven't watched a whole lot of the episodes regarding Gaara, but I tried my best to pin Gaara's dad. He seems like he's a jerk right up until the end when he realizes what Gaara is really worth... but for now, he's a jerk. 
> 
> Okay, so I've been searching like crazy and nowhere can I find that the ordinary villagers who aren't ninjas go to school. So I'm saying that there's a school for non-ninjas!
> 
> Also, I'm saying that Gaara went to Suna Academy. Because after being taught ninjutsu, and Yashamaru's death, he had to get super-powerful somewhere.
> 
> In case you didn't understand the last situation, Fumiko was limp/running, and when she made it around the corner she ran into the boy, who dropped his stuff. When she apologized and squatted down to pick up his books, he kicked her in the shoulder and she fell back.
> 
> Rude, I know.
> 
> But if it makes you feel any better, Gaara pounded him into the ground at their next spar.


	5. Chapter 5

Gaara wasn't sure when it happened, but puberty hit him with all the subtlety of a train.

He shot up like a weed- well, he was still short, but compared to how tall he'd been before- getting taller and staying skinny, his voice cracked and raised a couple of octaves when it did so, and he was starting to crave every fat-filled or meaty food in the village. He was eating the cooks out of business. He stayed brooding and quiet, and it made Fumiko laugh whenever he said something depressing and his voice squeaked.

And he was starting to notice things.

Fumiko was a very plain, very ordinary girl. She was average height, with a shapeless, thin kind of body that wasn't necessarily attractive or unattractive. She had almost-dark brown eyes with light brown, straight hair that fell down to the middle of her back. Her bangs stopped a half inch or so above her eyes, and she walked with an odd lilt that sometimes made her look uneven.

She wore plain, ordinary clothes. A blank white, sleeveless T-shirt that rose up her neck a little bit, minimal jewelry, and a Suna cape to keep off the sun. Fumiko wore plain, ordinary black shorts without pockets. She had a small satchel for her paints, and that was about it. A very plain, very ordinary girl.

But that was okay, because Fumiko was neither plain nor ordinary.

She barely cleared Gaara's shoulder, and so she always had to look up at him, and he down at her, and something about that warmed Gaara in some odd places. She was thin and feather-light, and when she fell or leaned on him, he barely budged. Her voice was melodic.

When Fumiko dragged him to clothing stores to hunt for small tops or shorts that fit her, Gaara found- with no small amount of horrified embarrassment- that he could very much appreciate the small curves of her hips, ad the way that some small shirts didn't have very flexible bust sizes.

Fumiko's shaded brown eyes were sparkling, thoughtful eyes that were often wide in surprise or wonder, that looked (distractingly) like chocolate when she was angry- which wasn't often- and caramel coffee when she was happy, which was always.

Her brown eyes had the (infuriating) tendency of swinging from side to side, leaving Gaara left behind and struggling not to touch it. Fumiko's bangs curled when it was humid or raining, and they framed her eyes prettily. Her uneven limp brought one's attention to her prosthetic, which she hand painted with bright colors and swirling designs.

There was more, things he couldn't link with anything plain or ordinary.

Her teeth were white as snow, and he saw them often because she smiled often. Her pale skin was always smudged with paint of various colors, and her hyper disposition could light up the night sky.

Yes, Gaara thought as he watched her doodle winged sheep on his wall from his spot lying upside-down on his bed, arms crossed over his chest. Nothing plain or ordinary about this one.

"Hey, Gaara?"

"Yes?"

Fumiko shifted on her stepstool, holding her paintbrush between her teeth while she turned to look at him, one had steady on the wall.

"Can 'ou han me the bwight gween?" she asked around the brush. Gaara looked at her in amusement, quirking what wasn't an eyebrow up- or down, since his head was hanging over the side of the bed. She waited expectantly.

"Since when are winged sheep bright green?"

"Thince when are 'inged theep 'inged?"

He grinned- or frowned, he was still upside-down- and grabbed the tube of migraine-inducing green, misleadingly labeled as Lime Green, and tossed it up to her. It was a good throw, and she snatched it easily out of the air. Grunting, she went back to work, and Gaara watched as the sheep's wool turned green and white.

"Remind me again why I agreed to let you paint my room?"

She took the now green-washed paintbrush out of her mouth and stretched up higher on her tip-toes and prosthetic to reach the tip of a wing. As she did so, the hem of her shirt lifted just a bit, showing for just a second a strip of skin. Gaara swallowed.

"Because I'm adorable and sweet and out of painting space?" she said in a teasingly syrupy voice.

"Oh, right," Gaara said, then smacked a hand over his mouth in frustration. Fumiko laughed.

"Nice," she said seriously. "Totally manly. Hey, throw me my detail brush, would you?"

...12

They laid down, side by side and on their backs, on his bed, staring up at the sheep and stars and flowers that had eventually built up on his ceiling. It was one of the rare, silent moments where they both were wrapped in their own thoughts.

"Ne... Gaara?"

Gaara blinked. "Yeah?"

"What do you think I am?"

"What?"

"I mean, some people see me as some things. But others see me as others. Some people call me a freak, some an idiot. My mom says I'm special. But you've never told me I'm anything. What do you think I am?"

"Hn." Gaara said, casting his eyes across the plains of shooting stars on his ceiling. "That's an easy one."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"You're Fumiko."

There was a bubbly laugh beside him, and Gaara almost smiled, turning his head to look at her. She was still looking at the ceiling, just laughing, and it looked as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she found the weightlessness exhilarating.

"Ha," she said. "Yeah, I guess I am."

There was another quiet moment, and then she finally looked at him.

"Love you."

The words didn't mean the same thing to Gaara as they did before. Before, the words meant a friend, a shoulder, a rock. Now he wished the words meant something different, and although the words still made him warm, they made him just a little wistful. But Fumiko was waiting.

"You too."

She smiled, and they both looked back up at the ceiling.

...12

Fumiko loved baking.

She made pies, tarts, cakes, cookies, brownies, and they often had gooey fillings or strawberries or nuts in them. Anything sweet or yummy was included in the batter, and no matter how unorthodox her recipes seemed, they always turned out amazing.

Her pastries were always sweet.

"Sugar, Gaara," she said one day after smearing icing on his nose. "Sugar is key."

Three cakes, six brownies, and an infinite amount of cookies later, Gaara couldn't help but agree. She found every excuse to bake- oh, you stubbed your toe? How about a cookie? Yay, you passed your test! Let's make a cake! Or even, you have nice eyes. I'm going to make a filling that color. (Indeed, her signature frosting was the same shade of blue as Gaara's pupiless eyes.)

Gaara was no good at baking, but he often found himself smudged with flour or gooey things as he helped her bake. The one time he'd tried to make one on his own to surprise Fumiko, it had not only collapsed, but literally caught on fire. After that, he left the baking to her.

But he still enjoyed the sugar.

...12

"Ne, mama. I'm sleeping."

Fumiko's mother was out, and Fumiko was late for school. She was sleeping soundly, sprawled out on the bed and tangled in pillows and sheets and blankets. She also was not waking up.

After joining the Academy, they had a little less time to hang out. Fumiko preferred to stay in the ordinary, (usually) jutsu free school. Even though Fumiko always appeared at the Academy when Gaara had an important event, school still carved out a decent chunk of free time. Gaara didn't have classes now, but Fumiko did, and usually he walked with her to the school.

He nudged her with his foot, but she just murmured something unintelligible and burrowed deeper under the covers.

"Momma, five more minutes!"

"You're mom's not home," he grumbled. "So get-"

Fumiko shot up like a ballistic missile, startling Gaara into stumbling back. She was still tangled in her blankets and was screaming, batting wildly at his face.

"Whoa!" he yelped and grabbed a fist in his hand just before it would have collided with his face. She tried again, and he caught her other hand as well. He was wrestling with a screaming mass of blankets with fists.

"Sugar sweet!" she screamed in his face, hair still smooshed over her eyes. "Who are you?"

"It's Gaara!" he said in a confused voice.

"Gaara?"

"Yes! Why are you attacking me!"

She tugged a hand free and brushed the hair out of her eyes, squinting. When she saw him, she blinked, surprised. The blanket finally slid off her shoulders, and he had to catch her when she started to tilt sideways. Sitting her back on the bed, he grumbled to himself and went to find her prosthetic.

"Holy fudging sugar, Gaara, what happened to your voice?" Fumiko asked in bewilderment. "It's all deep and weird now. I thought you were a murderer!"

"Why would someone murder you?" Now that he was paying attention, he realized that for the first time in a while, his voice wasn't cracking. It was gravelly and low, which was strange, because it hadn't been like that the night before.

"I dunno," she said defensively. "But when a random deep voice wakes you up by saying, 'you're mother's not home, so get up' murderer is the first thing that comes to mind."

He tossed her the prosthetic, which she slipped on.

"Nobody would murder you," he said, smirking, and helped her to heave herself out of bed. She was definitely wide awake now. "They're all too scared of me."

"Sugar. Somebody needs to have his head deflated." she muttered teasingly, but she was smiling. Then she frowned down at her nightclothes- a blue nightgown with speckled with cupcakes and pastries. Then she shrugged.

"Am I late?"

Gaara checked the clock. "Almost."

"Screw it. I'll say it's a dress." she decided.

"What about your hair?"

"Screw that, too." she snatched a too-big baseball cap with Suna's symbol on it, that flopped over her eyes, off her dresser. "I'll wear a hat."

Gaara just shook his head and opened the door. Her limp was barely noticeable as she tromped out to the kitchen for a sweet roll.

...

Walking her to school was always stressful- for Gaara. People stared, people always stared. At Gaara, for being a jinchuriki, at Fumiko, for hanging out with a jinchuriki (and such a creepy one at that, Gaara often heard) and at Gaara again, wondering if he forced her to be his friend- after all, he'd gotten her foot blown off. Who'd want to hang out with someone like that?

Fumiko didn't mind the whispers, even when she heard them.

"Stop it, Gaara," she would say if she caught him listening. "They're too bitter for us. They need more sugar, ne?"

She was perfectly content to be friends with only Gaara and Yoshiki, even preferred it. She was generally cheerful to people, and didn't mind picking herself up after being shoved over- when Gaara was absent, of course. Fumiko had no other friends.

So, every morning, Gaara went to her house to make sure she was awake, walked her to school, and coolly glowered at every bully known to him- though he was sure there were more she didn't tell him about. Then, he left.

He lingered for a minute, as she stepped through the gates to the courtyard. When he saw the group of boys snickering and heading towards her as she sat on a bench and munched on her roll, there was a freaky accident in which they all simultaneously tripped.

Satisfied, he went to his own school, and startled his sensei with his new voice.

...12

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Fumiko slammed her fists into the tree with more force than Gaara thought she'd be capable of using. He shifted her arm slightly to the left, and tapped her leg so that she adjusted it. When she punched the tree again, chips flew. Fumiko stood straight.

She'd prodded him to teach her 'ninja stuff.' When he asked her why, she only replied, "I might think that you shouldn't fight unless it's absolutely necessary, but I don't want it to be absolutely necessary and then not know how to fight."

This seemed fairly logical, so every Sunday they went out to Gaara's own training spot and got to work. For the past month it had just been physical- punching, kicking, dodging, and flipping. While they were at it, she'd also worked on her speed and stamina. Wiry muscles were starting to show.

Today, though, they were going to start working on nijutsu. Gaara didn't think that was necessary, because he knew that if she was near him- which she usually was- there would never be a need to even know how to fight- but she insisted, and Gaara gave in.

"Okay," he said, some time later. "There are a lot of signs, and a lot of different combinations. So if you can memorize the signs, it becomes easier to remember the patterns. There's Horse, Tiger, Boar, Rooster, Dog, Dragon, Hare, Monkey, Ox, Ram, Rat, and Serpent." he said, demonstrating each one.

"Well that's kinda random."

"They focus your chakra," he said.

"Got it. Lemme try one."

"Um- okay," he said. "A basic Genin technique is the Clone Technique. You use the hand signs Tiger, Boar, Ox, and Dog, in that specific order."

To Gaara's surprise, right after he had finished speaking, Fumiko's hands moved. They were a little sluggish, but she shouldn't even have remembered the seals that quickly. Her fingers snapped together slowly, forming Tiger, then Boar, Ox, and Dog.

Nothing happened.

"Ehhhh, Gaara, it's not working."

Gaara blinked. "Can you feel your chakra?"

"Sort of. Like... like this warm feeling, yeah?"

"Yes." he shook his head. "You must have just performed the seals wrong. Here-" he preformed the Clone jutsu slowly, and right afterwards an identical version on him slipped into existence. Fumiko laughed and poked it's forhead. Her finger went right through it. "Now try again."

"Okay," she said and made the signs, quicker than before. Not sure what to expect, Gaara leaned forward slightly.

As the final seal, Dog, was made, there was a flash of light from her hands. Fumiko screamed and the air around them- above them, next to them, even under them- full and half-finished clones popped into existence. Too many of them for just that level of justu and seal speed- Gaara stepped back in shock. Fumiko just kept yelling and for a second, there was just that and the sound of appearing Clones.

Then the light increased, and all of the clones vanished with a loud popping sound, like spitting oil on a hot frying pan. Then Fumiko was blown back with a cry. The explosion probably would have thrown Gaara back, too, but the sand shifted to be in front of him. When the light died and the sand collapsed, Gaara yelled, "Fumiko!"

"Ngh," she said, and sat up from where she'd been blown onto her back. Her hands smoked slightly, but didn't look burned or injured. "I- tired."

She fell back down, fast asleep.

...

"This is unusual," the medic-nin said. She poked and prodded a few spots on Fumiko's arms, leg, and stomach. She stifled a giggle, swinging her prosthetic so that it banged against the hospital bed's frame. Gaara just watched on with worry and a little bit of interest. When a medic-nin pulled that kind of face and called something 'unusual' it was usually not a good sign.

"What is?" Fumiko said. "My jutsu blew up."

"Yes, well, that's because you have no control over your chakra flow," she said. Gaara narrowed his eyes.

"But there's always control," he said. "The hand seals provide control."

"No," she said. "The hand seals just focus the energy. But, usually, there are involuntary responses in the body and brain to regulate the amount of chakra used. These involuntary responses are as natural as breathing, however Fumiko... has none of these."

"Ah," Fumiko said, and paused. "So what does that mean?"

"It means that you can't control how much chakra you use, or even if you use it," she explained. "If you use a jutsu, there's a fifty-fifty chance of it even working at all. The fifty percent it doesn't, no chakra is used, and nothing happens. The fifty percent that it does work, there is no control or chakra management, and it all flows into the jutsu."

"So, all or nothing?" Fumiko said.

"Exactly."

"Wait," Gaara said. "So whenever she uses a jutsu and it works, Fumiko uses all of her chakra?"

"Yes."

"But... that's dangerous!"

"It is. So what I suggest is either not using ninjutsu, or learning jutsus that require an extreme amount of chakra. That way, if it works, it will work as it should. But only use these as a last defense."

"But-" Fumiko protested. "What can I use?"

"My advice?" the nin said. "Ask a seasoned ninja. I only know the basics of any kind of jutsu unless it's medical related."

...

"What- Fumiko?" Temari said in a surprised tone when she opened her bedroom door to see who was knocking on it like a tennis ball launcher on speed. She blinked uncertainly at them. Gaara had almost never spoken to his sister, and Fumiko had only managed conversation once.

"Hello," Fumiko said. "You know about jutsus, right?"

...

"Well..." Temari said after they explained the situation. "What about Genjutsu?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of don't like this chapter anymore, but eh.
> 
> DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO FORMAT ON A03. GOD. It shouldn't be this hard to italicize words.


	6. Fool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still going! Review or let me know how to format if you get the chance

"You're a Genin?"

"I'm a Genin."

"You're a Genin?"

I'm a Genin."

Fumiko screamed loudly enough to break sound barriers and jumped on him, hugging his neck tightly and continuing to scream into his shoulder. It was a happy scream. Gaara started and automatically put an arm around her shoulders. She just bounced like a hyperactive Chihuahua, and Gaara almost wanted to start jumping up and down with her. Almost.

Today had been the final set of exams at Suna Academy. Gaara had passed everything with flying colors, which should have been a given, and when he stepped out of his classroom, there Fumiko had stood like always, prepared with balloons and a digital camera. Still, she was so excited, and Gaara had to admit, it was contagious in the best way. Gaara laughed and Fumiko pulled back, grinning, arms still around his neck.

"I knew you could do it!" she said happily. Gaara still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that she was in pure ecstasy for his sake, especially for such a given thing. There was no way he would have failed those tests. "Ooh, this is so great!"

"Don't you have finals today?" Gaara asked with a twitchy smile that wouldn't smooth out.

"I took them yesterday," she explained. "That's why I was so late. When I explained the situation to the teacher, she let me. But, I'm pretty sure she was more afraid of pissing you off than anything else."

"So wait- you already graduated?"

"Not officially, but yes!"

"That's great, Fumiko!"

She took his hands and jumped up and down, unable to contain her joy. Other graduating Genin swarmed around them, most staring, some celebrating, and a few crying in frustration because they failed. Gaara was holding two blue balloons that read Congratulations! Fumiko grinned and let go of his hands, reaching for the camera around her neck.

"C'mon! Lets take a picture, Gaara!"

"Let's do- uh!" Gaara grunted as he was pulled into a one armed tight hug. Fumiko pressed her cheek to his and held the camera up. Gaara was still smiling.

"Say cheese, ninja!" she laughed and clicked the shutter. There was a flash. Fumiko released him and looked at the picture. She grinned ad cried, "This turned out awesome!"

Gaara just chuckled to himself.

Fumiko laughed for a minute, just looking at the picture. Then, she threw her arm around him again, only this time, it was just a hug. It pulled him down a little bit, but he didn't mind all that much. "Love you."

He smiled. "You too."

...

They went home, Fumiko exclaiming loudly the entire time, and had celebratory cake and cookies at Fumiko's house that her mother had made. Smiling, and to Gaara's immense surprise, they had pulled out presents while he was distracted.

Wrapped in bright colors and topped with huge, streaming bows, there were three of them. One big one from Fumiko, which was almost as tall as him, one was normal sized, from Fumiko's mother. Surprisingly, he even received a small one from little Mai. They- all three of them, smiled and congratulated him.

The first present, from Fumiko, was a huge painting of Suna's sunset, the one they watched often from the desert. It turned over on it's long side, and the surrealness of the glowing sand and red-orange sun was breathtaking. From Fumiko's mother, he got a small, blank book that she said was for writing down your thoughts and ideas. Mai gave him an hourglass, which was odd, but Mai said that it was for good luck. Apparently Fumiko had told her about the whole 'Gaara's sand is good luck' thing.

There was the equivelant of a party, with balloons and streamers and cake and presents. Gaara, of course, stayed over.

Fumiko's father didn't come back until early in the morning.

...

"Ne, Gaara, that looks pretty good, huh?" Fumiko said in a satisfied tone as she stepped back from her dresser. Framed in a picture frame she had decorated herself was the picture of the two of them from yesterday, smiling and laughing together. Fumiko had an arm around Gaara's shoulders. You could see the balloon strings in the corner of the picture, along with some miscellaneous students.

Today was her graduation. She was dressed in her blue cap and gown, because ordinary school was much more festive about it than Suna Academy was. She looked a little odd, because she had accidentally (so she claimed) used her cap as a color pallet, and now it was rainbow. There were a few splatters of it on the gown itself. One could barely see the tip of the prosthetic under the gown.

She was beaming, teeth flashing white. Under her eyes was a black discoloration similar to Gaara's- although not quite as extreme- but Fumiko was almost never tired. She was used to it now, and that was just a side effect. All in all, she was going to look like Fumiko, not just another graduating student.

"I need to start a scrapbook," she said as they made their way out the door to head to her school. Fumiko's parents and sister were probably already there. "With all of our pictures in it."

"We don't have very many of those," he said.

"But we have some," she said. "Won't it be nice to be able to show it to our kids someday?"

"Our- what?" he spluttered and skidded to a stop. Fumiko halted and looked back at him with a confused and innocent expression.

"Y'know, when we both grow up and marry somebody and have kids. Won't it be nice to be able to show them?"

Gaara sighed. Of course that was what she had meant. "Oh. Yeah."

They resumed walking. Fumiko hummed to herself, practically skipping. She would be graduating as valedictorian, despite not being popular at all, because- even though a third of the time she skipped class to support Gaara- she still had a perfect straight A record. When Gaara asked her how that was possible, she just shrugged and said that the stuff came naturally to her.

...

"Fellow students and teachers," Fumiko said. "Friends. And family. Today is a day to celebrate!"

"So, did you practice your valedictorian speech?"

"Nope."

"I've had a lot of fun. I'm sure you have too! All of us have made friends and memories that are priceless beyond measure. I have my friends and family to thank for being here today- thanks, guys, for your support. Sometimes, people don't really like me. But I love everyone here more than myself, because we are all fellows on a journey to see tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, with new and exciting things every day."

"What?"

"I'm gonna wing it. Y'know, from the heart."

"After today, all of us will begin the next phase of our journey: figuring out what the sugar we want to do with ourselves! No more school, or homework, or carefully planned out schedules. No, today, we're free. I don't know what I want to do yet- but whatever it is, I hope it's important."

"You can't just 'wing' a valedictorian speech!" Gaara protested.

"All of us are individuals who were made to do something with ourselves. To better ourselves, or maybe our goal in life is just to see every sunrise and know that it was more beautiful than the last. Some will rise above all others, and some will support them! My goal right now, in this present moment, is to not mess up this speech. But tomorrow, it might be to find the perfect flower to paint."

Fumiko smiled. "Watch me."

"What I'm trying to say is, don't expect so much from yourself that you lose whatever it is that makes you you! Look at me- two friends in the whole world to speak of, a prosthetic leg, and I have paint all over my gown!"

A few laughs.

"You're all probably laughing at me. Wondering why I'm up here without any notes, or papers, without ever having prepared a speech, making a fool out of myself." Fumiko leaned forward on the lecturn, smiling so brightly that the people around Gaara were starting to smile as well. "But that's just it! I'm not making a fool out of myself, because I'm already a fool! A happy fool is who I am, and a happy fool is what I'll always be no matter what!"

"Good luck." Gaara said.

"So what are you? Do you hide your books because it's nerdy to read, or pretend you don't like somebody when you do, or bite your tongue because somebody more important than you is speaking? Will you become somebody you don't want to be, live a life that isn't your true purpose, ignore that perfect flower just because some people think that's not mainstream enough?"

Fumiko fingered her walnut charm. "I've got all the luck I need."

"Well, I have friends that love me for exactly who I am. The happy, paint splattered, one-legged fool! Who are you to someone else? Who are you precious to? Because to them, you're never a fool, you're only perfect, and that's what matters most!"

"Just keep smiling at me, Gaara."

"My purpose is to love. To smile. To do something that may not be important to everyone else, but is important to me! What's your purpose? To question everything? To play sports? To be the best? To draw, or know the answer, or write or read or play, or just to exist while you find your purpose?"

"Always." he promised. "The whole time."

"Live it! Live life! That perfect flower could wilt tomorrow, but that doesn't matter, because there's a flower right next to it that you've never seen before! Now is your time to shine, tomorrow is your time to shine, next week is your time to shine, twenty years from now is your time to shine! Shine your favorite color, and be remembered long after death!"

Cheers were beginning to echo throughout the crowd. Fumiko thrust her fist into the air, and for a second, just that one second, she wasn't the freak that hung out with a freak, she wasn't an outcast, she was a happy, paint splattered, one-legged fool who was one of them.

"We're only young. Not even teenagers yet! But you know what? Kids rule! We rule! Let's take over as the next generation of total fools!"

And then she was done, stepping back from the lecturn, and the murmurs and cheers turned into wild applause and whoops as she made her way back across the stage to the stairs. People were standing, the whole crowd was standing, and Gaara stood with them, clapping. He must have looked so odd- Gaara, smiling, clapping, but Fumiko had gotten it just right.

"Thanks, Gaara... love you."

"You too."

...

"Did you see me?" Fumiko cried happily, shaking with adrenaline.

"I saw you!" her mother laughed. There were tears in her eyes. "That was perfect."

Even her father smiled at her, and for a split second looked like Fumiko. "Good job, kiddo."

Fumiko was starting to cry with tears of joy. Every once in a while, students would clap her on the shoulder or say, "hey, nice speech!" and all of the attention Fumiko had never gotten from them, from her father, was making her giddy.

"That was awesome!" little Mai exclaimed.

"And Gaara was smiling at me the whole time!" she said. "Thank you, Gaara!"

"Any time." he said.

They went home, and had more cake, and passed around more presents. Yoshiki was there, too, and he smiled at Gaara for the first time.


	7. Konoha's Leaves

"Gaara, how much longer?" Fumiko asked curiously. They had been travelling for almost three days now, just walking and walking.

Not that Fumiko was complaining. She loved the desert and didn't mind walking long distances, and Gaara periodically caused the sand that built up in her prosthetic to trickle out. He also stopped the group for rest whenever Fumiko looked tired.

By 'the group' Fumiko meant herself, Gaara, Kankurou, and Temari. After a while, Gaara had decided that he wanted to become a chuunin. He was still obsessed with proving his existence, but although most people believed it was just to kill, Gaara wasn't that bad... most of the time. He usually just put on the personae of being terrifying, which, granted, he was very good at.

"Not too much longer," Kankurou answered when Gaara didn't. His voice was always just a little bit cocky, but Fumiko could see that even he was starting to get tired, trudging through the desert with Crow on his back.

Fumiko wasn't very well acquainted with Temari and Kankurou, but when Gaara had decided to sign up for the Chuunin exams in Konoha, he had realized it was teams of three that entered. So, he picked the two most skilled people their age who would accompany him: his siblings.

Fumiko didn't have anything to do back in Suna. She was excited to see the village hidden in the leaves- after all, aside from textbook pictures and a few of her homegrown plants, she didn't have much experience with the color green. And even if she was needed back in Suna, she needed to support Gaara in any case, so when she joined them on the edge of Suna for the journey, Gaara said nothing.

Fumiko focused on walking for a bit. Every once in a while, she saw something interesting and pointed it out, although she didn't always get an answer. She scuffed sand and the increasing amount of soil so that it blew away. This amused her for a while, but she was used to sand, so it didn't last long.

"What do you think it's like?" Fumiko wondered aloud. "I hope there are lots of trees and stuff... I've gotten way better with the chakra-in-my-feet-thing, right, Gaara?"

Gaara made a noise that Fumiko took as an affirmative. She grinned.

Although she had next to no control over her chakra, she was capable of forcing it to come down through her feet. It took a little bit more chakra and training than it was supposed to for anybody else, but Fumiko could now both stick to things and unconsciously keep her prosthetic on. It amused her greatly to walk on ceilings.

"There's already trees everywhere," Temari pointed out in a sarcastic tone. "Kankurou just said that we were almost there."

"Yeah, but..." Fumiko said, trailing off, then shrugged. "Yeah, no, that was a pretty stupid thing to say. My bad."

Temari just sighed.

"Hey, look!" Fumiko cried some time later, jabbing her finger forward as an unfamiliar gate came into view as they broke through the trees into a small clearing. The group stopped to stare up at it. "Hey, that's pretty sweet! Look at all the green... but there's no sand!"

Laughing, Fumiko knocked her knuckles against the gourd on Gaara's back. Kankurou flinched, but Fumiko knew that if Gaara wasn't around his siblings- who he felt he needed to frighten more than the average villager- he would have smiled at her. "Good thing you brought your ultimate defense, ne, Gaara?"

"Yes," he agreed.

...

"Heeey. Gaara, hey, can we get ramen?"

"Why?" he said in a way that sounded like he didn't care at all, but his eyes just held that bemused laughter that they usually did whenever Fumiko spoke. "We just ate."

"Yeah, but we've never had ramen before..."

"Fumiko."

"What? I bet it tastes really good. Might as well act like the tourists we are, huh?" she sang. The Konoha village was really something- almost no sand in sight, and it was super colorful, which Fumiko loved. For once it smelled like something other than baking sand. It was still hot, although now there was shade absolutely everywhere.

He seemed to struggle with words for a minute. Fumiko pulled a tube of finger paint out of her satchel and smeared some onto her finger. It was green. She worked on a leaf on her arm for a minute before pulling out a few other colors for shading. She was determined to paint an epic picture later on when they got to... wherever they were stayng, and this would be a good reference.

Gaara sighed.

"Kankurou, Temari. Go on ahead." he said, and they nodded. The pair of them broke off from Gaara and Fumiko, and made their way in the direction they had originally been going- not that Fumiko had ever known where they were going. Fumiko yes'd and pulled Gaara to the ramen stand lightly by his wrist. Now, he did smile.

Once they were seated and had ordered, Fumiko tried to strike up a conversation with one of the waiters who was off duty, but they seemed a little off-put by Gaara, her prosthetic, and the sand headband Gaara had. Fumiko herself had no such thing, as she had never officially become a ninja.

"Hello," she said when their food came. The waiter quickly put the bowls in front of them, handed them both a set of chopsticks, and nervously glanced at the scary-looking Genin otherwise known as Gaara.

"..."

"Well, all right." Fumiko said happily when the waiter left without answering her. "Hey, Gaara, do you think that the ramen'll be sweet?"

"I doubt it," he said. "I don't think they put sugar in this."

"Whaaat? I'm glad I bought a bigger satchel before we left... I can fit my paints, my brushes, and an emergency bottle of sugar!" she said, rooting through her bag for the recycled mini soda bottle. "Definitely a good choice."

"You brought sugar?"

"What else do you think I've been putting on the food you guys packed?"

With a triumphant mewl she pulled out her sugar. She shook it so that the contents hissed, and smiled. It was half-empty from the trip, but she just figured that she could just buy more sugar later.

"Fumiko, that's weird."

"You're weird."

She broke apart her chopsticks and tested some of the food. Immediately after doing so she realized three things: the ramen wasn't half bad, it needed sugar, and it was really, really hot. She yelped and spat it back into the bowl quickly before chugging the ice water the waiter had brought.

"Blow on it first," Gaara suggested, and Fumiko laughed.

"Ne, ne," she giggled. "At least I know how much sugar to put in it now."

...

Gaara, of course, had only eaten about half of his food before pushing it away. Fumiko, of course, had put sugar in it and eaten it instead. She ended up full and happy, sweet tooth thoroughly satisfied. After paying, they had left to go find the other two sand siblings.

"Should I paint a tree?" Fumiko asked Gaara, tugging absently on the walnut around her neck. "Because I'm thinking of painting a tree. Ooh, I know- I'll go up in a tree and draw the view from there! Add some leaves so people know it's from up in a tree..."

"You didn't bring canvas," Gaara reminded her.

"Awww..." Fumiko whined. "Ah well. I'll just doodle it and really paint it when we get back."

Gaara shook his head, smiling, and they walked in silence for a while, Fumiko wasn't sure how long they walked. Little kids played, and people laughed and hung out together. Fumiko took in the sights and ignored the wide eyes that stared at her prosthetic. This place had sun that was bright and yellow, and the air was clear instead of sandy.

After a while, though, Gaara suddenly stiffened and stopped.

"What?" Fumiko asked. "Did you find them?"

Gaara sighed. "Yes," he said. "And they're already getting into trouble."

"Getting into trouble?"

"Hold on," he muttered and jumped straight up into the tree above them. Fumiko started and skidded to a stop, staring up into the canopy of the now empty tree. Now that he was gone, Fumiko probably wouldn't be able to find him again until he reached his destination. She yelped and ran in the direction of his already fading chakra signature.

There was no sign of Gaara, but the trail of chakra and the occasionally falling leaf eventually led her to an upsetting scene.

Kankurou and Temari stood side by side in front of two kids that were probably there age, and a group of small children with matching goggles. She realized that the strangers were really upset, as the boy in the loud orange clothes was scowling. What really surprised Fumiko, though, was Crow- Kankurou had him out and ready to unwrap.

Fumiko gasped when she noticed the pretty boy in the tree, lounging on a branch like he didn't care at all. From his headband, Fumiko figured he was a Genin as well. She also recognized the chakra right next to this boy, although he didn't seem to notice Gaara. Temari looked surprised, like she had just yelled at somebody, and Kankurou was acting like he was going to attack a bunch of strangers!

She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Gaara dropped out of the tree, upside-down. His arms were crossed, and his feet stuck to the branch above him. Fumiko would have snorted at his dramatics if it wasn't for the worrying scene in front of her and the speed with which it happened.

"Kankurou." Gaara growled. "Back off."

Kankurou stiffened instantly at the sound of his brother's voice.

"Kankurou!" Fumiko called, jogging over the group and waving. "What are you doing?"

"You're an embarrassment to our village." Gaara said. Fumiko didn't like the way he said it, either, with narrowed eyes, but Kankurou was attacking strange ninja in their own home. And, knowing Kankurou- well, she didn't know him very well, but she knew some stuff- it probably wasn't even their fault.

Kankurou winced and made a choked sound, like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have- which was exactly what had happened.

"Hey, Gaara," he greeted nervously, smiling. His eyes were closed. Fumiko finally made her way over to the group, and stood next to Kankurou and Temari. They both looked anxious now. Fumiko smiled at the strange ninja in front of her, although they seemed to be paying more attention to Gaara and his sudden appearance.

"Have you forgotten the reason we came all the way here?"

Kankurou shifted to raise his hand up toward Gaara as he spoke, as if to block himself from a coming attack. Gaara just watched him.

"I- I know. I- I mean, they challenged us! They started the whole thing, really. See, here's what happened-"

"Shut up."

Kankurou flinched. He was sweating. Fumiko wondered idly how it was that no matter how hot it got, or how nervous Gaara made him, Kankurou's face paint never bled or wore off his face. As it was, the paint was perfect. Fumiko could appreciate that.

"Yeah. Right." He said. His voice was just a little bit off. Kankurou's hands were op in a placating way, like he was calming a horse. Fumiko just smiled and rubbed some of the paint on her arm around to make the leaf bigger, waiting. "I was totally out of line. I'm sorry, Gaara. I was totally out of line."

Gaara seemed to ignore Kankurou's pleading tone, and turned his head instead to look at the pretty boy in the tree. The pretty boy's face scrunched like he sensed danger, and he looked a little bit shaken. When Gaara spoke, his voice was level and toneless."I'm sorry for any trouble he caused."

Finally, Gaara's body swirled into sand. The boy quickly stood in his shock, like he was expecting an attack, but the sand just swept down to the ground and reformed next to Fumiko, his back to the group of ninja. Gaara straightened. She grinned at him.

"Let's go. We didn't come here to play games." he said.

"Games?" Fumiko said, and glanced at the angry blond boy in front of them. "Must not have been a very fun game."

"A-all right." Kankurou stammered. "Sure. I get it."

Kankurou turned to leave, then Temari. Fumiko turned around, too, but then turned back and waved. "Bye!"

"Wait!" the pink-haired girl shouted as they started to walk away. "Hold on!"

Gaara just kept walking, and so Fumiko just skipped along beside him. It was probably rude, but so was the way the girl yelled "Hey!" at them in a high, piercing voice, like Fumiko was doing something wrong. She stopped, and so did Gaara, which meant Kankurou and Temari did as well. Fumiko tugged on the sash that held Gaara's gourd on his back in question.

"What?"

"I can tell from your headband that you've come from the village hidden in the sand." the girl said haughtily. Her voice was almost irritating, but Fumiko didn't really mind. After all, Gaara's voice sounded a little bit like gravel. After a while, though, his voice became soothing. Fumiko doubted that this girl's was the same. "Of course the land of fire and the land of wind are allies, but no shinobi can enter another's village without permission!"

At this Fumiko turned around. The girl's face was determined, and Fumiko suddenly realized that she thought they were up to no good. Still, it was a bitter to accuse somebody of something on no grounds. Especially when it was because they looked scary. Although, it might not have been without reason- what had Kankurou done?

"So state your purpose. And it better be good!"

Kankurou and Temari turned. Gaara just craned his neck to look at them over his shoulder.

"That's a little bitter," Fumiko said. "Can't you ask more nicely?"

"Really. Have you guys been living under a rock or what?" Temari snapped. "You don't know what's going on, do you?" she pulled out one of the passport things that all four of the sand tourists- including Fumiko- had. Fumiko, smiling, took hers out, too. She showed it to them proudly as they all stared at the pass. It showed her picture, name, gender, village, and a few other things.

"Of course you're correct. We are Suna Genin."

"I'm not," Fumiko said, but Temari just smirked at the ninja in front of them and ignored her.

"Our home is the land of the wind. And," she said, lowering her pass, "we're here for the Chuunin exams. Get the picture?"

"The Chuunin exams?" the blond boy said. Fumiko finally noticed the scars on his face, and noted that they kind of looked like a cat's whiskers. He looked confused, which was odd. Wouldn't he know about a leveling exam in his own village? "What's that? Well, I've never heard of any Chuunin exams. Believe it."

Temari laughed. "Oh, I believe it all right. You're totally clueless."

"Hey, boss." the little boy beside him said. "These are the exams that every Genin's got to take in order to graduate to being a full-on Chuunin."

The boy turned toward the boy with an excited grin, fists up in the same was that Fumiko's did when she was excited about something. He kind of acted like Fumiko, actually- only he just seemed a little bit rude. But that was okay. Everyone was a little bit rude.

"Oh! Well why didn't you say so? I'm so there!"

Gaara scoffed and turned back around to walk. Temari and Kankurou followed. Before Fumiko could gather the wits to follow them, she saw the pretty boy drop out of the tree with a quiet tk. He straightened quickly.

"Hey. You! Identify yourself."

"Oh~" Fumiko said. "I'm Fumiko."

"You mean me?" Temari said in a voice that Fumiko didn't recognize, turning.

"No," he said shortly. Fumiko realized that this guy seemed to be a lot like Gaara. "Him. The guy with the gourd on his back." the boy said, pointing at Gaara. Temari's flirtatious smile fell.

When Gaara stopped, Kankurou had to halt abruptly to avoid running into him. Gaara turned his head.

"My name is Gaara." he said. Fumiko was so unused to people not knowing who he was, that it was almost a surprise to hear the words. "of the desert." He took a full step around to look at the boy, and Fumiko shifted out of the way. Gaara inclined his head. "I'm curious about you too. Who are you?"

The pretty boy smirked. "I am Sasuke Uchiha."

The wind blew, ruffling Fumiko's cape a little bit. Leaves blew, and the two boys stared each other down, one smirking, one calculating. Fumiko knew that this boy had to be strong for Gaara to really care. There was a moment of intense silence, during which Fumiko was pondering whether or not to turn around, since they seemed to be doing a lot of that.

"Hi there!" The boy with blond hair said loudly and with a grin. "I bet you're dying to know my name!"

Fumiko smiled back and nodded. Gaara slowly blinked, as if surprised to hear the other boy's voice, but his face still looked coldly uncaring. "I couldn't care less."

"Gaara!" Fumiko whispered.

But then they turned. Fumiko knew what was coming next- although she was good at standing in the tree, she wasn't quite so good at getting there yet. So she grabbed onto Gaara's shoulder just before they jumped, although she was sure Gaara would have helped her up if she hadn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter begins: The chuunin exams! Yay!
> 
> I do not own Naruto. Also, the chapters will be mostly in Fumiko's pov for a while, but whenever I can I'll write with Gaara. Plus, the text will be a bit edited... because of Fumiko, Gaara's purpose in life is slightly altered- he still wants to prove his existence over others, but not by killing them, just defeating or possibly maiming them.
> 
> (What? Shukaku's a pretty big influence.)
> 
> But he won't go around saying things like "Shut up or I'll kill you." So I'll edit the text just a teensy bit.


	8. Genjutsu

"Whaddaya mean I can't go in?" Fumiko exclaimed. Gaara watched her impassively, and Fumiko quickly capped and put away her paints so that she could focus on the conversation long enough to convince Gaara that, hey, she had to go in there.

The four of them stood outside of a tall, imposing building surrounded by trees. Gaara had told her already that the building was where all of the Genin participating in the Chuunin exams had been called to meet. Temari and Kankurou were waiting patiently by the huge door.

And Gaara had just informed her that she couldn't go in with them.

"Fumiko, first and foremost, you are not competing in the Chuunin exams."

"So? Standing in a room is not competing-"

"There are powerful Genin from every village inside of this building," Gaara interrupted. His expression didn't change, and neither did his tone, but the nature of his words did. "Allies and not. Tensions will be high. There may be danger."

"But you'll protect me," Fumiko protested, although there wasn't really any real power in her voice. She was arguing just for the sake of the role, and what both of them knew was going to happen after the fight. "And anyways, I know Taijutsu and Genjutsu."

"Fumiko."

"Oh, fine. I'll go get more ramen, then."

Gaara smiled back slightly, then wiped his face clean as he turned halfway to leave, back towards the door and his siblings, then looked back at her. His eyes were soft, and Fumiko knew that he knew that she was lying. It wasn't bitter if the person you were lying to knew, and besides, nothing's bitter if it was to support a friend.

"You'll be watching?"

Laughing, Fumiko gave him a thumbs up. "Most definitely."

...

Sneaking around during the Chuunin exams proved to be a little more difficult even than sneaking around during Suna Academy's final exams. There were people everywhere, and all of them were sharp-eyed trained ninja. Fumiko had almost made it to the building before she started having trouble- two sentinels were watching, on either side of the building, which meant Fumiko couldn't get around or anywhere near it.

If only the ninja hadn't made her leave the campus! 'You can't stay out here' and 'You can't wait for anybody.' It was a bitter defeat, but eventually she had left. The only part of campus not guarded was on the other side- so she'd had to make her way all the way back.

Fumiko ducked behind one of the many trees when one of the ninja's heads turned sharply in her direction. Fumiko breathed out and patted the tree's bark gratefully. She was starting to realize that it was going to take more than stealth if she wanted to get up to a window to watch.

Genjutsu had been surprisingly easy to learn, especially given her chakra control issues. But once she started, she realized that it was absolutely the most perfect thing ever- you could defend yourself without injuring. Of course, it still took her more chakra than any other person would use for Genjutsu, and she could only hold an illusion for so long. But this wouldn't be a problem.

After a while of excelling at the art of it, she had been told that she was a Genjutsu specialist. It wasn't supposed to be possible to put more than one person in a Genjutsu, because it wasn't supposed to be possible to look away from the victim. Or, as Fumiko liked to call them, the viewer.

She wasn't sure why she could, but she just could. It took a lot out of her, and she could hold a Genjutsu without looking for a maximum of about a minute. More than one person? Even less. If she was looking directly into one person's eyes, like one was supposed to do, she could hold the illusion for as long as her chakra held out, which depended on her focus and state of mind.

On her best day? More than ten minutes. In a rush or panic? Five.

Genjutsu was art. It was a lot like painting: you had to think it through. There were colors to be mixed, shadows to be stretched, details to be exploited. Entire worlds could be created, no matter how bizzare- just like her paintings. But above all, the painting should appeal to the viewer.

Most strategies for genjutsu was to force a person to see or feel something painful or terrifying. But, Fumiko had come to realize over time, that would just alert a person to the Genjutsu. What appealed to the viewer was what made people appreciate a piece of art.

For instance, if you suddenly morphed into birds or bent their reality or turned them paper-thin, they would realize they were trapped. But if you gave them what they wanted, painted them a reality they preferred or expected- them defeating you, or replacing something with something else believable.

Fumiko didn't know much about these 'viewers,' or about Konoha, or about they way security worked around here, so if Fumiko wasn't careful, this world she would make could become pretty sketchy. Surely trained ninja could detect a Genjutsu. If Fumiko played her cards right, she could make them believe they left, came back, and once they were released, nothing would be out of the ordinary.

Fumiko targeted first the sentinel on the left- the left side was the one she wanted to get to, and if everything went bitter, she could still make it past that immobilized guard, hopefully before the other could react.

She focused on recreating an exact replica of the world around them. The wind blew the grass just slightly to the right, and the tree leaves left cast shadowed patterns across the ground. His teammate glanced right, in the opposite direction, and the sun was bright and warm. Blue mixed with green mixed with brown, and Fumiko touched up every detail.

Once she had it expanded in her mind and colored with chakra, Fumiko poked her head out from behind the tree and turned her eyes to the man's face. She deliberately smacked the tree bark with her open palm, and instantly the first sentinel's eyes darted to her own, and he was trapped.

Fumiko was invisible to him, and for that split second, the sentinel hovered between belief and suspicion. He'd heard something and he knew it. So, Fumiko painted a picture especially for him.

She imagined the little boy with goggles that she had seen before, and then- adjusting the wrinkles in his shirt and the mischievous grin on his lips, she sent him flying out from behind the tree. He was the culprit for all of the suspicious noises! The sentinel (thought he) ran after the fleeing boy. He would run and run, and when he eventually would chase the boy away, he would return.

For now, though, he was just running, yet he was standing still as a statue, staring into space.

The other ninja had heard the noises as well, and turned to see what his partner was staring so intently at. Fumiko caught his gaze, she smiled. The ninja, of course, saw something very different. The other sentinel had used his speed (according to him) to dart to the tree, and was taunting him to a fight.

Behind the tree just a few minutes earlier, Fumiko had seen the angry glances, and observed the purposeful distance and cold shoulders. They were either rivals or enemies, and although Fumiko didn't really understand grudges and long-lasting anger, she did understand that the situation meant that the sentinel was both expecting and hoping for a confrontation.

So, with a smirk-ish grin, the remaining sentinel (thought he) attacked.

Still cautious of any possibly hidden ninja, Fumiko slipped past the two spellbound sentinels. She would release them when she was far enough away and up a tree.

Genjutsu, unlike ordinary jutsu, did not require a focused chakra attack. One needed only to force their own chakra wavelengths into another's, disrupting their natural filters for the world around them. The same way she'd learned to force chakra out of her body, she'd learned to make it shimmer and paint into someone else's mind's eye. There were still times that her attacks didn't work, but these incidents were few and far between.

Laughing quietly to herself, Fumiko climbed up the tree she had scouted out, using her arms and one leg to push herself up. She had learned a long time ago that smooth metal was for climbing. The tree was placed directly next to the building, with a very conveniently overgrown branch pushed up against the wall.

Pulling herself up to the highest window- directly below the overgrown tree branch- she sat down carefully. When she was balanced enough not to topple off the branch back into the sights of the recently released ninja, one of which looked satisfied- because he'd taken down his opponent without putting a scratch on him, and (he thought) the other man had sulked back to his position.

The other looked a little bit irritated- after all, he'd never caught the little kid, and (he thought) he'd made his way back and argued with the other sentinel, who had won. The end result was great- the irritated disposition of the first reinforced the second's victory, and the second's the smug demeanor reinforced the second's lost fight.

Fumiko would have to leave them chocolates later to make up for the manipulation. A little guiltily, she memorized their nametags so she could ask after them later.

After she had their names down- Imada Kenji and Okura Katsumi- Fumiko peered inside.

A written test, Fumiko realized. There were a lot of other Genin there, all seated like they were in a classroom, papers out. It was easy enough to spot Gaara, whose red hair stuck out a mile. He wasn't writing, just staring intently down at the table. From this high angle, Fumiko couldn't see his face.

Fumiko's eyes also found Temari and Kankurou, as well as the trio of ninja from before- Uchiha Sasuke, the boy in the orange clothes, and the girl with the pink hair. The blond boy appeared to be in a bad way, sweating with anxiety. Fumiko couldn't see any faces, just the tops of heads.

One boy started, his hands going up as if to wipe something out of his eyes. Fumiko grinned when, a few seconds later, Gaara picked up his pencil and started to write. She couldn't see the eyeball, but that was good- if she couldn't see it, the sentinels more than likely wouldn't see it.

She stared at who she assumed was the proctor- from her spot towards the middle of the classroom and his raised chin, she could see his face. He was a smirking man with deeply tanned skin and two white scars down his face. He stared at the ninja in front of him, arms crossed.

The scars were probably only white because of the light coming in through the windows... but still, set against the color of his skin and the white of his teeth... that would be an interesting color study.

Giggling to herself contentedly, Fumiko shifted so that she could both lean her back against the trunk of her tree and see Gaara at the same time. She rustled around in her satchel for a minute before pulling out the necessary paints she would need, a few napkins, and her almost-empty emergency sugar.

...

Between glances at her study, painting, and looking down at Gaara, Fumiko saw Kankurou get up with Crow and head somewhere- probably the restroom. Nobody seemed to realize the sentinel wasn't a sentinel. The lights shifted, a blond girl seemed to slump over unconscious for a while, and the boy in the orange clothes never wrote down an answer. She couldn't see the questions.

Licking a bit of sugar off her finger, Fumiko brushed a little bit of black into the proctor's eyes with her brush carefully, and then licked her thumb and dabbed it into a careful mix of light pink and white, then blotted the color onto the right pupil to create reflection.

The lighting was perfect, the scars- although a little iffy in her opinion, but come on, she was painting on a napkin on her knee- decent, and the skin tone reproduced perfectly, Fumiko could easily say that she was very satisfied with her work. Kankurou came back.

She diverted her eyes to Gaara, who had stopped writing in anticipation of something her study- no, his proctor- was about to say. Fumiko straightened, careful not to fold or mess up her painting before it dried. He was saying something, but Fumiko couldn't hear through the obviously soundproofed glass.

There seemed to be a pause in activity.

Then somebody was raising his hand, and him and two others left the room. Immediately after this, a lot of people were raising their hands, and a lot of people left. Fumiko watched with confusion- did they all suddenly get sick or something? But then, why were the teammates leaving as well?

The flow slowed, but the atmosphere still seemed tense. Outside of the classroom, birds chirped and the sun shined, but in the classroom, Fumiko assumed you could have heard a pen drop. She stared so long, wondering what would happen, that when the blond boy jumped up, she almost fell out of the tree she jumped so high.

He was being so loud, Fumiko could almost hear his voice through the glass. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but whatever he was saying seemed to motivate the other Genin, who looked scared stiff. Then the kid sat back down.

The proctor said something, and the blond boy seemed to say something back. Then, again, all was quiet.

Her paint was dry now, so she carefully folded it and tucked it into a separate pocket on the side of her satchel so the napkin wouldn't crumple. By the time she looked back up again, the proctor was exclaiming something. Fumiko had missed something important!

Temari seemed angry for some reason. Fumiko wished she could hear what was going on, but she would just have to ask Gaara later.

After a minute or so of the proctor's words seemed to clear up some of the confusion, and most of the Genin were starting to smile at each other in excitement and relief. Fumiko grinned and shifted for a better look at all the happy faces.

Suddenly something pricked her subconscious mind- that gut feeling that Gaara said to just trust.

Fumiko dove, locking her hands around the branch. The catch seemed to jerk her arms out of her sockets and she swung slightly, gasping, and cried out when the glass just above her head now exploded as something dark rushed by, just where she had been sitting seconds before. Fumiko diverted her face from the flying bits of glass, hanging by her arms from a branch.

Before she could start to pull herself back up, she heard, "Hey! You up there!"

Fumiko looked down to see the two sentinels glaring up at her from below.

She grinned sheepishly and would have shrugged had she not been dangling fifteen feet above the ground.

"Hello," she said. "Sorry!"

In situations like this, Fumiko usually dropped the idea of pleasing the viewer, because they would already know they were in a Genjutsu. So she distracted them with neon colors, and (they thought) she suddenly began to dissolve into sand from the toes up until, with a final flash of a grin, she disappeared completely.

While they stared up into the air, Fumiko quickly slid down the trunk of the tree and started running.

One of them, in their mind's eye, cried, "Release!"

She felt her control vanish as he touched his partner, and the air filled with shouts as they ran after her.

Good thing she had practiced running.

...

Gaara stepped out of the classroom with the rest of the other Genin, following the woman who had burst through the window. It didn't take long to notice the confusion outside- shouts and yells echoed through the clearing, and since he was close to the front of the group, Gaara saw the flash of brown streaking across the campus towards the gate, and the sentinels hot on it's trail.

Then, the oddest thing happened.

They both tripped.

The streak of brown dashed through the gates and escaped.

...

Fumiko was on a roof this time, panting.

When she had heard the grunts and thuds behind her, she had guessed that they had tripped. Then, she had deduced that the only way two well-trained ninja running across almost completely flat ground could have tripped at the same time meant she had had some help at just the right time. She would be making a lot of cookies and chocolates later...

She had scaled the side of a building, breaking out a bit of her remaining chakra to vault up the wall without slowing down. Once the ninja had stopped skidding and managed to stand up, they had realized she was gone.

Now Fumiko was gazing around, one hand shading her eyes. The group of Genin were nowhere in sight. Fumiko sighed a little bit before brightening. This wasn't going to be their next test- they were probably just being introduced to the next proctor. Fumiko would be there for the actual test, but until then she could work on those chocolates.

...

When Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou finally got back to the little hotel room they were staying in, they found a cake and a plate of homemade chocolates sitting on the table. While Kakurou dug in and Temari delicately picked up a chocolate, Gaara found the note stuck to the fridge with a magnet- Apologizing. Be back soon to celebrate! -Fumiko. PS: Love you.

"You too," he said under his breath.

...

That afternoon, two very irritated sentinels were grumbling to each other as they made their way to the main building to clock out for the day. Not only had they been put under a Genjutsu by an apparently young and crippled girl, but then they had somehow been embarrassed in front of their superiors because, impossibly, they had tripped.

When they finally made it to the office, the lady at the front desk looked up.

"Oh!" she said. "You two! Are you-" she checked a piece of paper on a box on her desk- "Imada Kenji and Okura Katsumi?"

"Yeah," Kenji mumbled.

"What's it to you?" Katsumi snapped.

"A girl was here earlier, she said she knew you... brown hair, a prosthetic leg?"

"She was here?" Katsumi yelled.

"Why?" Kenji asked.

"She left you this," the woman said, pushing the box forward. "with a note. Said something about how she hopes you two have a sweet day."

Katsumi snatched up the note, and Kenji looked over his shoulder as he read it.

Dear Katsumi and Kenji, 

Sorry I had to trick you. I was there to support a friend and you wouldn't let me through... I'm also sorry that I got away, I'm sure that bothered you a lot. So bitter! But anyways, I made you both apology gifts! Baked them myself.

-Mitsuwa Fumiko.

"What in the world?" Kenji muttered, having taken the note. "Support a-"

"Holy Kami," Katsumi said in a hushed voice, already having ripped the box open. "There's chocolate in this thing!"

...

Fumiko stepped up to the door to the proctor's office. After having showed the lady at the front desk the painting, she had directed Fumiko to the right building and room. She had also given Fumiko a name: Ibiki Morino. Fumiko knocked on the door.

When she heard a gruff "Come in." she pushed the door open.

"Hi," she said.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Fumiko," she said. "I'm Gaara's friend. You didn't see me, but I was at the exam earlier."

"You were... what?"

"It was me running away from the sentinels," she said truthfully. "The second proctor blew my cover. But before all that stuff, I, uh, did a color study of you. I just realized earlier that I never asked permission... that was rude."

"A color study?" Ibiki frowned.

"BUT, I already took a picture of it, so I thought that in apology I could give it to you!"

He watched dubiously, too surprised- and a little curious- to make this girl leave or call the sentinels. She unbuckled a pocket in the satchel on her waist and pulled out what looked like a folded napkin, while simultaneously balancing a small box in one hand. What really drew his attention, however was her leg- or lack of it, to be more precise. And she claimed to be Gaara's friend?

Fumiko dropped the napkin on his desk, and then put the box down next to it. "I also made chocolate," she said. "Sugar usually makes people happy. Well, goodbye!" she said happily, but paused halfway to the door. "By the way, I already know the answer, but Gaara passed, ne?"

All Ibiki could manage to say was, "Yes."

The girl beamed. "Awesome sugar," she exclaimed. "If I leave now, there should still be cake."

She left.

Ibiki mutely picked up the napkin and unfolded it.

He had thought nothing else could surprise him, but he was proven wrong.

The dammed painting looked exactly like him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, guys! For the first time, we get to see Fumiko as she miraculously sneaks past trained guards! She didn't use genjutsu before, though... so how she snuck into Suna Academy over and over is still a mystery! XD


	9. Chapter 9

Although Gaara hadn't let her go inside during the first test, he didn't argue when Fumiko joined the three Genin for the trek to the 'Forest of Death.' The name seemed a little bit dubious to Fumiko, but Gaara told her not to worry about it. The lady in front of the gated forest, Anko, was hyper in a way that Fumiko could appreciate, and violent in a way that she accepted.

Anko didn't seem to notice her presence until the blond boy's face was cut. Well, until after that.

Fumiko eeped a little bit when one of the ninja's tongue's stretched out farther than it should have. Not that she blamed him, I mean, it was probably just a thing he could do. She wondered how many people forgot about her prosthetic when he did that. Gaara, Kankurou, Temari, and her were standing towards the edge of the group, because even though Gaara tolerated her this close to the other ninja, he still wanted to stand between them and her.

"It seems like everyone today is quite dapper. There must be something in the air." Anko said, seeming to not realize that the blond haired boy was attempting to imitate the guy with the long tongue. She hmphed, smiling. "This is gonna be fun."

"Sure," Fumiko thought aloud. "It could be!"

Eyes darted to her. A few didn't really seem to care, some already knew she was there, but the rest of them just blinked and tried to connect her to a village. As they slowly realized that Gaara stood between them and the girl of interest, many looked away quickly. But Anko did no such thing.

"Eh?" she said. "And who's this? You aren't one of the students."

Fumiko took a half step forward and waved. "Hi. No, I'm just the friend."

"Are you allowed to be here?"

"Um..." Fumiko hmm'd and tapped her chin. Nobody had been specifically told that they couldn't bring along a friend, but Fumiko didn't want to sound facetious, and besides, there was most likely a rule about it written somewhere. "Probably not."

There was a minute of silence in which Anko studied her and Fumiko smiled. Gaara didn't move to get in front of her, but Fumiko knew his sand was built up under the cork in his gourd, ready to fly, so she wasn't particularly worried. Besides, Anko didn't seem like the type of person to make her leave. The other Genin in the area seemed frozen.

Finally Anko broke into a grin. "Fair enough."

The words were said, Anko's attention diverted, and Fumiko was accepted. Fumiko stepped back beside Gaara and grinned, elbowing Gaara's arm lightly. He didn't smile, or even look at her, but elbowed her back almost imperceptibly. His arms were crossed and he watched the proctor carefully. Kankurou and Temari were paying attention, but didn't look all that interested.

Anko took a few steps back towards the gate. "Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all."

As she said this, she turned back around to face them- smirking- and reached a hand into her coat, pulling out a paper. "It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form, and then sign it."

"What for?" the blond boy asked. This just served to deepen Anko's smirk.

"Some of you might not come back from this test. And I have to get your consent to that risk." She paused, then smiled like she was thinking about a really funny joke. "Otherwise it would be my responsibility!" She laughed.

Fumiko's eyes widened, and she looked over at Gaara. "This isn't safe?" she whispered, tugging his sleeve. "You said this was safe!"

Fumiko had told Gaara often that he should be a ventriloquist. Between trying to keep Fumiko satisfied and trying to keep up his dark appearance, he'd gotten fairly good at talking from one side of his mouth. "I said I was safe."

"But-!"

"Now. I'll explain what you'll be doing for this test. Here, pass these out." She held out the stack of consent forms to the blond boy, who took them. "The first thing you need to know is that this test will tax every one of your survival skills."

Fumiko watched her with interest- and now a little worry. "First," Anko said, then pulled out what looked like a scroll, and snapped it open. On it was a- Fumiko cringed- very crudely drawn map of what looked like the Forest of Death from above. "I'll give you a description of the terrain in the practice field. The 44th practice training zone has forty four locked entrance gates."

"Oh," Fumiko tittered to herself quietly. "I get it."

"There are rivers, and a forest, inside. In the center is a locked tower located ten kilometers from each gate. It's in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of..." she paused for effect, and put her map away before locking eyes with all of them. "Anything goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls."

The ones she held out were colored with two different kanji, Heaven and Earth.

"Both of them?" someone asked.

"Yes." Anko replied. "You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll. All together, twenty six teams will be taking part in this test. So half of those teams will be going after the Heaven scroll, and the other half will be trying to get an Earth scroll." she held them up. "I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team, and that's what you'll be vying for."

A pause.

"Okay," Sasuke said. "Then how do we pass the test?"

"Your entire squad must bring both a Heaven and Earth scroll to the tower."

"That means at the very best, half of us will fail." the pink haired girl said sharply. "More if not every team is able to get both the scrolls."

"No one ever said it would be easy." Anko said like the girl was talking nonsense. "Oh, and one more thing. The test has a time limit."

She tucked the Heaven and Earth scrolls back into her jacket. "You must finish it within five days."

"Five days down there?" the blond girl she had seen collapse during the written test exclaimed almost angrily.

"What are we supposed to do for food?" the chubby boy beside her yelled, throwing up his hands.

"Just look around," Anko said like it was obvious. "The forest is full of things to eat. There's plenty to feed all of you."

"Yeah, but that's not all the forest has plenty of." a boy with pale gray hair and glasses said with a knowing smile. "There are man-eating beasts and poisonous plants down in there."

The chubby boy groaned. "Oh, maaannn," he whined. The blond girl turned toward him sharply.

"Quiet down! This is why they call it survival, you know."

"That means," a boy with pure white-grey eyes said slowly, "with these circumstances, then there's no way half the teams will pass the test."

"With the days getting longer," the boy with big eyes and a green jumpsuit said, "the nights are getting shorter, so we will have less time to sleep, and less time to recover." He smirked. "It is a challenge indeed!"

"Completely surrounded by enemies," Sasuke mused with a neutral expression. "There'll be no time to rest, we'll have to keep a constant watch."

"Right," Anko said. "This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test, and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge."

"So, um," someone said. "Let's say, mid-exam. Can we quit?"

Anko looked at the kid like he was stupid. "Of course not! In the middle of a battle, you can't say 'Sorry, I quit.'" She paused before smiling. "Well, I guess you could, but it's probably gonna get you killed!"

"Oh, just great," the bored looking boy with the short ponytail muttered. "This is gonna be a drag."

"There are also some ways you can get disqualified," Anko said. She raised her pointer finger. "The first is simple. If all three members of a team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days. Number two-" She raised another finger. "If a team loses a member, or if a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue. But most important, none of you, absolutely none of you may look at the contents of the scroll until you've reached the tower."

The blond boy asked, "Wh-what if it just happens to flap open and you read it?"

"Let me put it to you this way, young man," she chuckled. "You. Don't. Want. To. Know."

The boy frowned and made a whining, grumbling noise in irritation.

"There are times when a ninja will be ordered to carry secret documents," Anko said. "The scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay, we're done. Each team take your consent forms and exchange them over their for your scrolls." She pointed over to what looked like a reception desk. "After that, each team pick a gate, and you'll be let inside."

Anko sighed. "Oh, and I have one more word of advice," she said. "Just don't die!"

...

All of the teams had broken apart from the others to mull over their consent forms. Fumiko lent Gaara, Kankurou, and Temari detail brushes to sign their names, and read over a copy she'd taken for herself. She wouldn't sign it, because she wasn't involved with the Chuunin exams, but she still wanted to look at it and see the extent of the danger.

"Gaara," she said. "This is pretty serious stuff."

"I won't die," he said. "You of all people know that."

Kankurou and Temari had wandered off to discuss the exam rules amongst themselves, leaving Gaara and Fumiko alone by a tree. The forest beside them loomed, and although there was beauty in it, Fumiko saw that there was also foreboding. She knew Gaara would be fine, but that wasn't really what she was worried about.

"But what about everyone else?" she protested. "I can't believe they let you kill each other when it isn't a necessary life-or-death situation! It's bitter and crazy! What if there's some people with a grudge out here?"

"Why are you worried about strangers?"

"They're people too!" she exclaimed. "Gaara, even if you see blood, you gotta-"

"Ignore his voice, yeah," he said quietly. "I'm trying."

"Trying?" she repeated. "Oh no. Is he already yelling at you? That's no good, Gaara. You never tell me these things."

"I'll be fine," he said, averting his eyes to the ground beside his feet. His blue eyes were narrowed slightly as if in concentration. "Don't worry about it, Fumiko."

"Can I come?"

"No."

"Well can I hide?"

"No."

"Um..."

"Fumiko, you can't come."

"Pft! No, No, No." she said. "Why not?"

"You're reading the form as we speak," he pointed out. "I may be invulnerable, and Kankurou and Temari can both handle themselves. But you won't draw blood until you're about to die." He met her eyes again. "I don't understand why you're worried about people you don't know, but I do know you, and I won't let you go in there. And as I said before, you aren't participating in the Chuunin exams."

"You don't even want me to spy," she said, shocked. "You can't be serious!"

"In all other situations until now," he said, "You were never in any danger by watching. You stayed behind during my missions."

"But this is an advancement!" she protested. "This-"

"Will be easy," he said.

"Gaara-"

"I need you," he said, "to stay out of the fighting. I know you won't stay out of the forest. I can't force you. But I don't want you near any fighting, or other competitors. So you can't just follow me."

"Gaara..."

His stance was solid, arms customarily crossed and face blank. His gaze was firm, and he wasn't going to give in. Fumiko saw the sense in his plea, even if she didn't like it- there were some in this crowd who, although undoubtedly nice people, Fumiko was sure, would try and go after the weak link. That would probably be her, the non-ninja. Gaara couldn't keep an eye on her at all times if she was sneaking around him, and she wasn't allowed to just stroll in with them.

"Fine," she said. "Fine, I won't follow you. But if something goes wrong, I'll find you or you find me, okay?"

He nodded. "Fair enough."

Fumiko grinned. "I'll meet you by the tower?"

"Yes."

Just then, Temari and Kankurou rejoined them. "All of the other teams are almost done," Temari said. "We should go and get our scrolls, Gaara."

He nodded at them and the three made to leave.

"Wait!" Fumiko reached out and seized Gaara's shoulder before he could take more than a few steps in the direction of the desk, and he stopped. Kankurou and Temari continued on obliviously. Gaara turned his head to look at her. Fumiko took a deep breath, then let it out. Then she smiled at Gaara.

"Be careful," she said.

"Of course."

Fumiko held on a moment longer. "Love you."

"You too."

Fumiko released him, and he stared at her for just a second before looking back ahead and walking to catch up with his siblings, who were already halfway to the desk. It was curtained off now, Fumiko realized. Anko stood watching all of them, probably to make sure nobody ditched and ran away. Fumiko watched him for a full minute, and then he disappeared behind the curtain.

...

It was easier to get in than she thought. Fumiko's original attempt to sneak in failed.

She had left. After all of the teams had turned in their consent forms, Fumiko had left, or at least pretended to. Really, she just climbed a tree and waited for an opening to scale the fence. Anko didn't seem to be leaving, but she was the proctor, after all. Fumiko checked her satchel to make sure she had enough sugar for a five-day expedition. The night of Gaara's written exam, Fumiko had gone out and bought more sugar. In anticipation of such a situation, she had brought not one, but two full soda bottles of it.

All of the teams headed to their respective gates after receiving their scrolls- she saw the sand siblings headed over to gate six from her tree. A few tension filled minutes later, the ticking of clocks audible in the air, Anko gave the okay, and all of the gates were unlocked. The few ninja teams she could see from this vantage point raced inside.

And then she had slipped down the tree, quietly making her way through the treeline until she reached gate six. She didn't have to, but Fumiko felt obliged to go at the same gate, even if she was going to scale the chain link.

It was easier than climbing trees, because she could use her prosthetic as well by hooking it into the holes in the fence. It rattled quietly as she made her way to the top. Halfway up, however, Fumiko froze as a voice called, "Now I know you're not supposed to do that."

"Oh- Hi, Anko," Fumiko said sheepishly, looking back over her shoulder. The ninja stood with her hands on her hips, between two trees at the edge of the clearing, close to where Fumiko had scouted for guards.

"Kid, what's up with you?" Anko said. "You aren't a ninja, but something tells me you are."

"Um, I'm not official," she explained, still hanging from the fence. "But I know Taijutsu and Genjutsu."

"Huh. Well, you're not half bad at it, kid. None of my men saw you after your friends went in. But you still aren't allowed in there, kid. I'm supposed to turn you in now."

"Sugar," Fumiko muttered. Then she smiled at the proctor. "Ne, but I need to be in there."

"No cheating is allowed for the Chuunin exams, sorry," Anko said, but she seemed intrigued by this non-official ninja hanging from the fence. She was smirking and using that tone of voice that let you know she was the proctor. "You can't."

"Cheating?" Fumiko exclaimed. "Sugar, I never cheat! Yeesh. It's bitter to judge, you know," she said. "Besides, Gaara doesn't need my help. He'll pass no doubt. None of this stuff you have here'll phase him. Uh, no offense, sorry."

"Then why do you need to go in there so badly?"

"Support." Fumiko said, laughing. "It's just a thing we do. I sneak in and watch his stuff. And I'm getting in here whether you stop me here or not, so can I please just go in now? My fingers are starting to get sore."

Anko stared at her for a second. "If you die-"

"Covered," Fumiko said. "Gaara didn't want me to, but I left a form at the desk after everyone left."

Anko laughed, deep and throaty. "Well, who am I to stop you, then?"

"Thanks!"

Fumiko clambered the rest of the way up the fence, then dropped down to the other side after struggling at the top. Her foot hit the ground first, and she let her knee bend so that it hit the ground without really putting any shock on her prosthetic. Then she straightened, turned to Anko, waved, and then vanished into the woods to go and seek out the tower.

...

Anko mused on the weirdness of the kids these days.

None of them were frightened, none of them thought they would fail, and all of them were cocky this year. And then, there was an ordinary girl from the village hidden in the sand that wanted to sneak into a place called The Forest of Death after hanging around long enough to know every danger just so she could support a guy who she claimed couldn't possibly fail.

So weird.

"That kid," she said when she stood back in front of the registration desk and indeed found the piece of paper signed in red paint lying there on the table. No scrolls were missing. "is either gonna get herself killed or get outta there without a scratch."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Review!


	10. Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Just a forewarning, I have not yet figured out how to italicize, and until then, ALL of Shukaku's rambling in Gaara's head aren't going to be italicized, so make sure you pay close attention to who's talking! Otherwise, enjoy!

Fumiko hadn't slept, but she wasn't tired yet. One night? No problem. Five nights? Piece of cake. Fumiko could stay awake for weeks. She'd probably be tired after this whole ideal, but a night of sleep and she would be good as new again. And anyway, she had emergency sugar.

It was the second day of the Chuunin exams, and, true to her word, Fumiko was making a conscious effort not to seek out the sand siblings or Gaara. Instead she made her way through the forest and avoided the other competitors at any cost, which was part of the reason why she wasn't at the tower yet. The exams were as hard as she'd anticipated, and her progress was slowed by poisonous plants, animals, people, and the lack of easy food.

Fumiko had had some trouble with food. She really didn't mind the lack of sleep, it was almost fun anticipating and avoiding the Genin, and if she waited long enough, the wildlife would let her know if a plant was dangerous or not. But the problem was, most of it was dangerous, and she couldn't eat that. She didn't really know how to set traps, and despite how easy it seemed, she couldn't catch any fish barehanded, and she had no idea how to make a rod.

The downside of living in a desert? One has absolutely zero experience with how to live in a jungle.

Rather than dwell on her rumbling stomach throughout the first night, Fumiko had made her way through the forest, dodging teams and searching unsuccessfully for something to eat. One team, who she had assumed was from Sound from their headbands, had chased her for half a day after spotting her. By the time Fumiko had managed to shake them off, she was even farther from the tower, hungry, and a little bit spooked by a plant that had tried to eat her.

But she had stayed optimistic. They wouldn't make this impossible for the Genin, so there had to be a way to survive. For the day she ate about a fourth of her sugar, which didn't really help but still brightened her mood considerably. Fumiko had started off again, leaping from tree to tree and hiding from the occasional teams until she had missed a branch and tumbled to the ground next to the river.

After a few seconds of confused scrambling, she had regained her wits. It was getting dark again, and that made it almost impossible to see the branches of the trees. Then, unable and unwilling to try again, Fumiko had decided to wash off and try again to catch a fish.

Now her pants were rolled up to her knees. Fumiko waded out into the shallowest area of the riverbank, watching the fish go by, waiting for a big- and possibly slow- one to swim past. The water felt good on her legs, but she'd have to make sure to dry out her prosthetic carefully.

It was literally impossible to catch a fish with your hands. They flopped, writhed, and squirmed; their scales were slimy and wet, and Fumiko couldn't get a decent hold on any that she actually managed to grab. Which wasn't a lot.

While she was wrestling a fish out of the water, it's tail smacked her squarely in the face. In shock, Fumiko reeled backwards and dropped the fish. Her prosthetic caught on something, a rock maybe, and Fumiko dropped with a cry and a splash.

Fumiko sat, half-submerged in water up to her chest, wet and stunned and without her fish.

What happened next was purely an accident.

Fumiko didn't know why, just that she was growing- dare she say it?- annoyed at the fish, annoyed at her protesting stomach, and annoyed at the prosthetic that had suddenly given out on her, and the next one that swam by, taunting her, was suddenly the viewer.

Fumiko learned that she could put fish under a Genjutsu.

The fish stopped dead in the water, just drifting with the current, (in it's mind) swimming on like nothing had changed. Fumiko, surprised, wobbled back to her feet. In the confusion, one of her pant legs had fallen back down, but she was already soaked anyway, so she didn't roll it back up. She splashed through the water after the quickly floating fish.

Fumiko simply reached her hands into the river and pulled the fish out, laughing. It didn't fight, or flop, just stayed limp. It (thought it was) still swimming, far away from the large feet in the water, not in the hands of a girl humming to herself and skipping through the water back to shore.

Fumiko may not have known how to catch a fish or carve a rod, but she definitely knew how to start a fire. In a village of sandstorms, power outages, and cold nights, you needed to be able to light the fireplace or you'd either freeze to death, or have no light for days on end.

She found sticks, dry leaves, and a few scraps of dried out moss to light a decent cooking fire. Fumiko expertly twirled the twigs beneath her fingers, and soon enough she had a cheerful little flame going. It was even darker now, and she decided to rest for the night and head out to the tower tomorrow. While the fire grew she cleaned the fish, and eventually had a surprisingly delicious dinner.

Of course she put sugar on it, along with a few sprigs of some leaf that tasted really good and wasn't poisonous. Her belly was full, and she was warm. She wasn't sleeping- she couldn't, there were still people on the hunt who wouldn't realize she wasn't on a team- but she didn't need to. Instead, she painted on the tree she was leaning on and occasionally tossed a stick into the fire to keep it going.

The small campfire crackled and hissed comfortingly. Softly glowing embers danced in the air just above it, swirling on the hot air. Fumiko dotted yellow and orange onto the rough wood, and swished black around them in an abstract way that still showed the tree's bark. She wondered who would find it, and if they would wonder who had painted it.

...

Nobody disturbed her but a squirrel. Fumiko cleaned all of the leaves and dirt out of her prosthetic, and after she dried it out, put it immedietly back on. She'd learned years ago that running or fleeing in a hurry was impossible if she didn't have it on already.

An owl hooted somewhere, and Fumiko mimicked the call quietly. To her surprise, the owl hooted back, and before Fumiko could respond, another joined in. Fumiko giggled softly and hummed under her breath. The night bore on, and by the time sunlight peeked through the trees, Fumiko was packed back up, refreshed and ready to go.

She hauled herself all the way up to the top of the tree to watch the sunrise- after all, she was an artist first and a ninja second. After that (the colors blended amazingly together, by the way, and the treetops scattered and held the light like fragmented glass. Noted) she slid back down to a normal height and set out to the tower, which she had seen framed against the sunrise.

Fumiko was in much better spirits now, and she traveled along the river as best she could from the trees. Darting from branch to branch, the wind gusting her hair back behind her, Fumiko felt perfectly happy and ecstastic at the beauty of the woods.

But she forgot that there was foreboding shadowed in these trees.

...

Blood.

Gaara flinched. Even when the Shukaku whispered, his voice was loud and abraisive in his head, echoing like the crashing ring of a bell, rattling his skull. His outward appearance didn't change, but Gaara's instant pounding headache almost made him whimper. Shukaku's voice was getting louder, which was bad, because that meant he wasn't going to give up this time.

I need- you need blood.

No, Gaara shot back.

You like blood. I like blood. Red and warm and so easy to get.

I said no!

"People ahead," Kankurou called over his shoulder at Temari and him. "D'you think they have a Heaven scroll?"

"Could be," Temari mused. "We should-"

Gaara glanced through the trees quickly, a little bit uninterested and slightly worried. The movement combined with his headache made him almost nauseous. Instantly he knew it was a mistake when he saw the ninja in the clearing. It was the full team of three, and it seemed like they were looking for them. It was hard to miss Gaara's chakra when he wasn't masking it.

Kill them, Shukaku crooned. You don't know them, they're not important.

I don't care.

Blood, Gaara. They have it. You're allowed.

Gaara's eyes narrowed, the only outward sign of his struggle. It blocked out the light a little bit, which eased his headache until the Shukaku's clamoring peaked his pain past the breaking point every couple of seconds. At the same time, the tall one in the group of ninja pinpointed his chakra. His head turned, and the others looked over.

I promised I wouldn't, so shut up.

Fumiko, Fumiko. That's all you think about. What about your bloodlust, eh? Can you control it, GAARA?

A shiver jerked his body. Kankurou and Temari didn't notice.

Don't you-

"They see us." Gaara said aloud. His tone was carefully disinterested. Inside his own head, though, he was about ready to scream. His headache only seemed to amplify the rough voice in his head to the point where he was starting to almost believe it. Or at least do what it wanted before his head cracked in two. Gaara gritted his teeth.

Back off-

"Ah, you're right." Temari muttered. "Do you think they'll try and challenge us?"

She's not here. Nobody will tell!

Gaara's mouth moved, not of his own accord.

"Let's go," he said shortly. He would fight them, but he wouldn't kill them, just take their scroll. He only wanted their scroll. The Shukaku laughed inside his head, because he knew he had already won.

...

Fumiko was close to the tower. Just another half hour, and she would be there.

She paused for a quick rest on a low hanging branch, and ate some of the fish she'd cooked a few hours before but kept in her satchel. After waking up, she had followed the river for a while, and then around noon had stopped for a drink of water, and while she was there, caught two fish and prepared them. She didn't know how long she would be at the tower and figured that it would be better to stay inside and wait for Gaara than have to keep going outside to fish for food.

Before she could, though, she heard the scream.

Loud, terrified, and agonized, the howl was achingly familiar. After all, she'd heard it several times before: eight where men had tried to murder them, and three times when Gaara had completely lost control.

Sombody had just died.

...

"Let- let me go!" the ninja stuttered.

Wrapped entirely in Gaara's sand and totally helpless. His teammates made no move to intervene, faces frightened and shocked. Gaara struggled with himself, but by now, he knew they would all have to die. But he could do it painlessly.

Gaara stepped forward in trepidation. He raised his arm to crush the boy as painlessly as he could, to cover him completely and let blood seep out from underneath. Painless. Painless. Murder.

"All I have to do is cover your big mouth and you'll be dead."

MORE!

Shukaku took over his body, or at least the sane part of his mind for just a moment. Although Gaara struggled he knew that it would have to be better, bloodier, to satisfy the demon inside of him. To satisfy the deadly hunger it possessed before he hurt somebody he didn't want to.

He pulled the umbrella that had flung the senbon out of the ground and snapped it open, sheltering himself from what he knew would be a bloody rain. Gaara couldn't bring himself to leave any evidence for when he saw Fumiko later- and she would definitely notice if he was covered in blood.

"But that would be too easy and too boring."

Gaara fought it halfheartedly, but reached a trembling hand out despite himself. The coffin of sand raised into the air, sand falling off of the bottom in a stream. The ninja cried out in surprise and what Gaara easily recognized as terror, and as he rose and the sand grew tighter, in pain.

Gaara couldn't look at what he was about to do, so instead he just looked straight forward and rose his hand higher, the sand higher. He closed his eyes briefly, praying for just a second that Fumiko would be able to look him in the face if she ever found out, praying he wouldn't burn in hell after murdering yet another innocent person.

YES.

Gaara's eyes snapped open and his face twisted in a half-snarl, but it was really just a poorly disguised look of determination, he had to do this, he had to, the Shukaku was going to make him kill whether it was these strangers or somebody he actually cared about. He turned his head from where the most blood would fall, he couldn't, he couldn't, he was.

His hand fisted.

That moment of silence before death was always the most peaceful to Gaara.

"Sand Burial!"

...

Fumiko skidded to a stop, almost falling from her branch. Her head whipped around, and sure enough, once she concentrated she could easily sense the familiar, comforting chakra just a few yards from where she stood. "Oh, freaking sugar!"

She jumped hard against the tree trunk to launch herself farther away in the direction she'd heard the scream, a detour that was a hard right from where Fumiko was originally travelling. Screw staying out of fights- Gaara needed her, now.

"Fine," she said. "Fine, I won't follow you. But if something goes wrong, I'll find you or you find me, okay?"

Something was very, very wrong.

She jumped and skittered and leaped from branch to branch as fast as she could, which turned out to be pretty fast. Her prosthetic scraped and slid against the branches and a few times she almost fell, but Fumiko just dug her fingers into wood and flung her way to the next one. Her mind whizzed a mile a minute; she was getting closer, she was almost there-

The air filled with screams again, this time full of anticipation and mind-numbing fear.

She wasn't close enough before he killed more people. Fumiko cried out, hoping that he would maybe hear her, but knew that unless she was close, near him, he wouldn't be able to hear her over Shukaku's roar. Fumiko just hoped Gaara would be able to stop this time.

Her foot tapped lightly onto the branch just outside the clearing. It smelled like blood, and it was splattered on the leaves around her. When she looked directly down, Fumiko gasped- there were already people here, cowering behind a bush. A boy in a fuzzy coat, another boy wearing small, black glasses, and a small girl with blue hair. She couldn't see there faces from here, but from their posture, they were hiding from-

"Look, Gaara." Kankurou's voice said. Fumiko started and peered through the trees.

Then almost threw up.

There was blood everywhere. Like the apocalypse had come early and Fumiko had just missed the blood rain. It was splattered every which way and up the trees and on the dirt, everywhere except for on Gaara. Fumiko realized why the people were cowering- after that, after all that bloodshed, Gaara was holding a hand out in their direction.

"I know this test is no problem for you, but it's dangerous for Temari and me."

He was walking towards Gaara, no, that wasn't good.

"One set of scrolls is good enough. It's all we need to pass!"

Gaara stretched his hand out further, hesitant, Fumiko knew, but unable to control it, wanting to aggravate Kankurou into attacking, wanting to be distracted before he killed anyone else. He knew exactly where the ninja were hiding, and he hated it, hated the Shukaku, hated the control it had over him. "Losers can't tell me what to do."

Kankurou's face twisted. He grabbed Gaara's sash and got into his face. "Alright, that's enough!" he snarled. His face paint warped a little bit. "Sometimes you have to listen to what your big brother says."

No, no, no, not good, don't use that tone with him, not in his state, you'll die. He doesn't mean it, just distract him, Kankurou, but not like that! Not with that, you aren't a brother to him, and Temari isn't... Fumiko's lips pressed thin. If they couldn't convince him or Gaara snapped further, Fumiko would step in. But she wanted to see before she acted, before she revealed that she was there.

Gaara wouldn't have wanted her to see him this way.

"It's too bad I don't think of you as my big brother at all. If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

Gaara smacked Kankurou's hand away and took a half step back, as did Kankurou. Gaara's face was unchanged, eyes narrowed in the way they were whenever Gaara was confused or worried. He was probably both now. The Shukaku would be laughing with glee in his head now. Gaara raised his hand again in the direction of the cowering ninja. All three of them shivered and huddled further away as the sound of sand rushed through their ears.

"Wait!" Temari said placatingly, both hands raised. Her 'disarming' smile was nervous and frightened. "Just hold on, Gaara, You- don't have to treat us like we're the enemy. Look, do it as a favor for your sister. Please?"

Kankurou gasped lightly when Gaara raised his hand to Kankurou's face.

Then, he turned it back toward the terrified Genin below her.

Too late. They couldn't help, they would only make it worse, and Gaara would lose what little control he had left. Fumiko had to do something and do it now, before something else happened and Gaara hated himself forever. Fumiko pushed her way through the few leaves separating her from the clearing.

"Gaara!"

Everybody froze. She sensed the stares from below her, but ignored them. Gaara had stiffened in place like a marble statue, and Kankurou was still locked in place, too scared to move lest he aggravate the boy in front of him.

Fumiko leapt down from her tree and landed in her own customary way, letting her foot touch the ground and then bend so that her knee hit the ground as well. Her prosthetic was slid out to the side to avoid the brunt of impact. Then she scrambled to her feet, standing between Gaara and the Shukaku's prey, directly in the line of fire. But Gaara would never hurt her.

"Gaara," Fumiko said. "Calm down."

Gaara moved his intense gaze from Kankurou's eyes and slid it toward Fumiko. Fumiko winced when she saw his expression- hard, but his eyes were twitchy, and he was trying not to let himself kill her.

"The tower," Fumiko said quickly, almost conversationally, "is right over there." She pointed to her left. "I've got some fish. Did you know you can put Genjutsu on animals? Hey, you've got both the scrolls already!"

As she spoke, Fumiko walked steadily and calmly closer to Gaara and Kankurou, very, very carefully so as not to splash into one of the red puddles dotting the grass. Kankurou was looking at her like she was going to get them all killed, but he didn't know Gaara. He was listening. When she was a just an arms width away from him, she said, "Gaara, I know I said I wouldn't find you, but hey, something went wrong, yeah?"

Then she pulled him forward into a hug. He didn't move, didn't try to return the hug or push her away. Just stood there with his arm out toward the ninja hiding behind the bushes, face stony. She couldn't see Kankurou or Temari, but she could hear the breath they sucked through their teeth. They stood like that for a while, her and Gaara, him fighting, her holding.

...

Kill her.

Go away!

She's in the way! I need more!

Stop it!

I need MO-

NO!

Slowly, growling, the voice faded as Gaara forced it down.

No.

...

Gaara's hand fisted, but there was no scream, there was no sand.

"All right. This time."

Fumiko pulled away. Gaara looked over at his hand almost in confusion, like he couldn't believe he had stopped himself.

His cork had formed in his hand. Gaara had regained control over the tailed beast inside of him. Fumiko smiled and tried not to look as sick as she felt, and very pointedly did not look at the earth around her. Gaara stuck the cork into his gourd and then turned to leave. Trying to get away just in case Shukaku tried again. When he started walking away, Fumiko followed.


	11. There's always a Catch

Fumiko walked beside Gaara. Temari and Kankurou stayed just behind them, probably to keep an eye on Gaara in case he lost it. Fumiko knew that for now Shukaku had quieted down, but she also knew that for once, Gaara had stopped in the middle rather than continue until the demon was satisfied. So it might be a problem later- but for now, the only two problems were that Gaara wasn't saying anything, and that another plant had tried to eat her.

They were literally just a yard or so away from the tower. Fumiko could see it through the trees. Behind them, Kankurou and Temari had probably already finished the fish she had given them. Gaara had eaten his in just a few bites, only eating it because Fumiko had asked him to. Otherwise, he absolutely refused to look at her, opting instead to just stare at his destination.

When they made it to the tower, it was, of course, locked. Gaara blasted the door in with his sand.

The place was empty and kind of gave Fumiko the creeps. It was eerily quiet, and their footsteps echoed throughout the entire building. The walls were made of aged, cracking stone, and there were no artificial lights. It was dark, cold, and gloomy, and she was half expecting a ghost to jump out at them and scream BOO! Fumiko just pulled her Suna cape tighter around her shoulders.

They looked on every floor to see if there was some hidden room they were supposed to find. Normally, Fumiko would have left by now, waiting for them to be recognized for passing before rejoining them to leave. But she got the feeling that Gaara needed to say something, and besides, two days on her own was long enough, thank you.

"Kankurou, do you think we have to wait until the five days is over?" she asked. "'Cause this whole searching thing could just be useless."

"I hope not," he grumbled. "Temari, do you think we should split up and keep looking just in case?"

Fumiko looked back, smiling at Temari. The girl seemed to just want to calm down for a minute, and being near Gaara probably wasn't helping. Temari was smirking, but Temari was always smirking, and Fumiko was good at reading eyes. Temari nodded quickly in agreement.

"Sure," she said. "Fumiko, can you and Gaara check upstairs?"

"Yeah," Fumiko replied cheerfully. "Meet back up by the benches when the moon comes up?"

They nodded, and Kankurou and Temari made their way back down the stairs. The tower was actually a lot bigger than it looked, but the most comfortable looking place was the one she had just agreed to meet in- the large room with hard wood benches. Right away, Fumiko took Gaara by the wrist and marched him back down the hall and to a bench.

She sat down with a genuinely happy sigh. After two and a half days danger and danger and running, it was nice to finally be back with the one person who could protect her, in a locked place that basically meant Game over, you don't have to try and kill me anymore. She could finally sit down and relax, but Gaara couldn't. Fumiko waited for him to sit hesitantly down next to her.

Then she waited for him to speak. There was no rush- Fumiko knew that there was no hidden room, and if there was, she wasn't going to find it.

It was probably another ten minutes before he did open his mouth, during which Fumiko repainted her nails and took out her second bottle of sugar to snack on. She left her fish in her satchel- if Fumiko really did have to wait a full two more days before the test was over, she needed to save her food.

"Fumiko... I tried."

"Uh-huh," she said with a smile. Not a grin- Fumiko's grins were still being pulled down by the memory of a field drowning in blood. It wasn't Gaara's fault, but god, Fumiko hated blood and the smell of it. "I know."

"No," Gaara insisted. "I can't control him."

"Yes you can, Gaara."

"No! I killed three people... almost six. I didn't even..."

"You tried, Gaara." Fumiko said. "That's what counts. It's bitter that they died, but there's nothing you can do about it now, and it's not your fault anyway."

"I could have stopped!"

"You could have," Fumiko agreed. "But you didn't."

This seemed to take all the air out of him. He slumped just a little bit, but Gaara was always posture-perfect, controlled, and deadly, so that was a big thing. Now he just looked a little bit tired and a little bit angry and just a little bit frightened. There was no one else around, and Fumiko knew that had Kankurou or Temari been there, he would still be the stiff, glaring jinchuriki he was so known for being.

"Look," Fumiko said. "I'm sure there was a reason you didn't stop, besides the obvious thing. You always have a reason, Gaara. I'm just glad I got there when I did." she paused. "Like I said before, you agreed that if something went wrong, I could find you."

"'Wrong,'" he scoffed. "The things I do are evil. Fumiko, I don't believe you don't hate me."

Fumiko laughed. "Well, sugar, Gaara. What else don't you believe? I bet you think ninjas don't know how to fight, or, ooh, your sand never protects you! Gaara, we have this conversation over and over."

She put her hand on his, sitting on the bench between them. His skin was just this side of cool, as it always was. Hers was probably really warm, as Gaara always told her it was. Fumiko's happy tone softened just a little bit, and her smile grew a little less happy-go-lucky and a little more truthful.

"Gaara," she said when he didn't answer. "See this?" She banged her prosthetic on the concrete. The thud echoed and the springs made an odd squeaking sound. "This wasn't really your fault either. Totally out of your control. But do you want to know something cool?"

"Hn." he grunted.

"I like it. I mean, can you imagine Mitsuwa Fumiko, a jinchuriki's best friend, painter slash baker slash motivational speaker, with two actual feet?" she laughed again. "Nah, Gaara. I know it's not the same thing, blowing off a leg and killing someone, but you get my point."

His head leaned back until it was hanging backwards off the edge of the bench. Being upside-down always seemed to comfort him, whether it was just his head or his whole body. Gaara stared at the ceiling.

Fumiko held out her bottle to him. "Hey, Gaara, do you want some sugar?"

...

Fumiko still didn't hate him. After everything, she still wasn't scared like she should have been, and she still stuck around. Half of him wished she didn't, for her own sake, but then the other half viciously snapped until that other side of him shut up.

Fumiko offering him sugar like that, a smile on her face, that wasn't a pointless gesture. Even if Fumiko herself didn't realize it, that kind of offer was a total trust move. She wouldn't do it if she hated him, and she wouldn't do it if she was scared of him. Gaara almost wanted to tell her how close he'd come, how close Shukaku had come, to crushing her into nothing.

But he didn't.

Instead he just lifted his head and held out his hand. Fumiko poured sugar into his palm, and Gaara tilted his head back and dropped it into his mouth. It was too sweet, way too sweet, but at the moment nothing else would have satisfied him. Fumiko laughed and poured sugar directly into her mouth.

...

Fumiko told Gaara about everything that had happened during the test on her end. She recounted first slipping into the trees, Anko letting her go, and climbing up to pinpoint the tower. Then she described the long trip, then the encounter with the Sound ninja who had tried and failed to catch her, followed by a long chase. Fumiko told the story of fishing and trying unsuccessfully to carve a rod.

"But you're an artist," he said.

"Yeah, well, artists don't catch fish, they paint them."

His face went a little bit uneasy when she told him in detail about hunger and running straight on for two days, and falling almost into the river. But then it warmed with that small, amused smile of his when she used erratic hand gestures to describe the fish hitting her and her accidentally using Genjutsu on a fish. She touched upon owls and dancing embers, and painting on a tree, running again, and then closed up with, "-and that's when I found you."

By the time she finished her tale, the moon was up. It wasn't dark yet, the moon and the sun were both up, but it was turning into twilight fast. Fumiko wondered where Kankurou and Temari were.

"Hah," he said. "Your story was a lot more interesting than mine... you know, starving to death counts as something going wrong."

"Nah," she said back. "I had sugar. So what happened to you?"

"We didn't run into anybody on the way," he said. "It was easy, and Kankurou used his Puppetry to get food. I didn't move as quickly as I could have. It was nice. And then... well, you know. Then you found us."

"And you guys passed!" Fumiko exclaimed. Then paused. "Or, not yet, I guess... but almost!"

"Almost," he repeated.

"Gaara, do you sense Kankurou and Temari? They should be here by now."

"Yes. They're about three floors down. I don't know what they're doing. Not fighting. Or looking for anything."

"We should get them," Fumiko said. "Strength in numbers and all that sweetness. Besides, what if someone official shows up and thinks the full team didn't make it? That would stink. You wanna, Gaara?"

"Sure."

...

Fumiko jumped down the stairs two at a time on one foot just to see if she could, and about halfway down, realized she couldn't. But that was okay, because Gaara's sand caught her before she could hit the ground. After that, she was laughing so hard that Gaara just left her on the cloud of sand because she couldn't stand up straight. It floated along just in front of Gaara, and Fumiko was loving every second of it.

Fumiko sat with her knees tucked under her, hands keeping her balanced. The sand shifted but stayed mostly solid. Her arms were weak from laughter as she peeked over the edge to see the stairs underneath her cloud, and even Gaara was fighting back a smile. He spun the platform slowly in a circle, which just made Fumiko's already hysterical laughter increase.

When they finally found Kankurou and Temari, you could say they were a little surprised. Kankurou just stared at the joyful girl on the floating ball of sand, and the stoic boy who didn't seem to care either way (but did.) Temari was a little less obvious about it- she just smirked and looked away with a sigh, but her eyes darted back to look the second eyes were off her.

"Hey!" Fumiko said, giggling. "We came looking for you, but I fell d-down the s-s-stairs!"

The sand lowered until she was kneeling on the ground, then dispersed from around her. It drained back into the gourd on Gaara's back. Still hiccupping quietly, Fumiko stumbled back up to her feet. "Ha ha ha. What were you guys doing down here?"

"Nothing important," Kankurou said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Did you find a room?"

"No," Fumiko said. She managed to kill her giggling, but she had found her grin again. "I don't think that's what we're supposed to do. Why don't we head back up to the bench room and think of something else?"

"Yeah," Temari said.

"Okay! Gaara, I'll walk this time," she said. "No jumping."

...

"No one's here," Hinata said nervously.

"Ha ha! We're the first." Kiba said smugly.

"No. I'm sure that I sensed somebody here a little while ago." Shino muttered.

The three had arrived at the tower just minutes before, but when they found nobody else there, they had just gone straight to what looked like the main room to try and figure out how they passed. Akamaru was still tucked into Kiba's jacket, and although he was no longer shaking, he was still spooked.

"More importantly, is Akamaru okay?" Hinata said, stroking the dog's nose. "The poor little guy's been so scared for so long."

"Come to think of it," Shino asked, "What did Akamaru say before?"

Kiba looked at him with a serious expression on his face. "Well, I guess he must have been saying that that bigger ninja was in trouble because that little pipsqueak was gonna kill him."

"Just like I thought." A familiar, cocky voice said from somewhere down the hall. The same voice that had warned against and tried to protect them from said dangerous pipsqueak. The three of them flinched and turned towards the voice. "There's nowhere else for us to go!"

"We've already waited half a day." Another, female, voice snarked. "How much longer are they gonna make us wait?"

The first one that turned into the room was the pipsqueak freak himself. Now, the three got a better look at him: short red hair, an unexplained kanji on his forehead, and the terrifying gourd on his back. Hot on his tail was a smiling girl with long brown hair, brown eyes, with what looked- and to Kiba, smelled- like acrylic paint smeared on her hands.

Following them were the other two Sand Siblings, but the team only had eyes for the boy who had almost killed them and the girl they now recognized to be the same one from before; the one who had saved their lives.

The one with the purple face paint and a smirk glanced up at them when he noticed their presence. The team couldn't do anything but stand frozen as the Sand Siblings and the girl passed them by. The girl noticed them with a small oh sound, then waved at them, grinning.

"Hi," she said.

The kid with the red hair's pupiless eyes slid back to look at them as he passed. All three of them, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, swallowed. Hinata sucked in a breath, but the ninja from Suna just continued on their way past without bothering them.

I don't know what that sand village squirt is, Kiba thought anxiously, But whatever he is, he's way too dangerous to mess with. He's bad news. And who was the girl with him? Kiba thought he recognized her scent from the briefing Anko had given them before. But what was she doing here? And why was she hanging out with the... whatever it was?

They continued on their way until they reached the staircase on the opposite side of the room, then disappeared up them.

...

"Oh! There's kanji here..." Fumiko muttered. Behind her, Gaara watched as Kankurou and Temari discussed what to do next. Every plan was half-hatched and half-hearted, because besides getting to the tower, they had no idea what else to do. "Let's see..."

As she read it, a laugh bubbled out from her lips. "Ne, Gaara?"

"What?"

"I know what you gotta do now. It says it all right here." Fumiko pointed up to the tapestry on the wall. Kankurou and Temari glanced over, and Temari jumped up. She made her way over, almost pushing Fumiko out of the way so that she could read it.

"'If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire more wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthen qualities are what you lack, then train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are opened together the perilous path will become righteous forever. This something is the secret way that guides us from this place today.'"

"So what does that mean?" Kankurou scoffed.

"It means we have to open the scrolls," Temari realized. "Good work, Fumiko."

Gaara rose, along with Kankurou. Kankurou then reached into his pocket and pulled out the Heaven and Earth scrolls. Fumiko swallowed the last of her sugar, then stared at the empty bottle in a slight sense of morose worry. The day and a half without food had drained more of her supply than she had previously anticipated, and she wondered if they would be able to leave after the Scrolls were opened.

Kankurou handed Temari one of the scrolls, and they both opened them at the same time. Fumiko, a little curious herself, leaned over Gaara's shoulder to see what was written on it. Man and People.

"Huh?" Fumiko squawked. "What's that mean?"

"It's a summoning jutsu," Gaara said in a tone that suggested it was obvious. Kankurou and Temari dropped their scrolls like hot irons when they started to bubble and smoke. Fumiko just hid behind Gaara, who stood unmoving with his arms crossed, and continued to peek over his shoulder. When the man appeared, she yelped in surprise, and then laughed.

...

"First of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam!" Anko said loudly. The microphone attached to her ear that snaked down to her mouth amplified it. Anko smirked like she was thinking of something funny.

After leading them to the main room, Fumiko had realized that although a few teams had made it before them, there weren't that many. It turned out that they really did have to wait the full five days, but they were provided with food, and Fumiko had managed to acquire a small bag of straight sugar. When questioned, Fumiko had simply said that of course she was allowed in here and of course she wasn't going diabetic, why do you ask?

Gaara, of course, had been the only one of the four of them without a mark on him. Fumiko herself had a few scratches from a flyaway kunai and a standoff between her and a wall of thorns, a few bruises and scrapes from falling or tripping, not to mention that she was dirty from three days without a bath.

On the fifth and final day, the last team came staggering in- Uchiha Sasuke, the blond haired boy, and the pink haired girl. Just in time. Then, all of the Genin assembled in front of the stage to listen to Anko. Gaara, Kankurou, Temari, and herself were front and center before the stage and the speakers.

There was a minor squabble in the back that Fumiko couldn't really make out, but it seemed to involve two Jonin. One was very large and green, and the other was cool and had most of his face covered up by a mask and his headband.

"Alright, now pay attention! Lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you!" Anko commanded. "You better listen carefully, maggots."

"Bitter," Fumiko muttered, licking sugar off her finger.

"Lord Hokage? They're all yours."

Who Fumiko assumed was the hokage stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"First, before I tell you what the third exam entails," he said. Fumiko watched the pipe in his mouth bob up and down with a kind of attentive fascination. It didn't appear to be lit. "I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely now, it's something that all of you need to understand. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these exams. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies?"

This didn't seem to apply to anyone but the Konoha ninja. Fumiko wondered if Gaara was even paying attention anymore- all he needed to hear was the part about the third exams. "To raise the ability levels of the shinobi, and increase friendship between the allied nations to be sure, but it's important that you understand its true meaning. The exams are, so to speak..."

He blew out a puff of smoke, and Fumiko realized that the pipe was lit, but by now she was more interested in what he was saying than what he was smoking. "They're a representation of the battle between allied nations. Now, if we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighboring nations that continuously fought with one another for power. In order to avoid destroying each other's military strength meaninglessly, those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries at a mutually selected location. That was how the Chuunin selection exams originally began."

"Oh?" Fumiko inquired. "More fighting."

"Well, that's great, but why do we have to go through these exams then?" The blond boy said. "I mean, its not like we're doing this to pick Chuunin to fight."

"Well, actually," the hokage said, and put his pipe back between his teeth. "There is no question that part of the point of these exams is to select the shinobi worthy of becoming Chuunin. That's just not the whole story. These exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their backs, and fight against other ninja for their very lives."

So that's why they were allowed to kill each other, Fumiko realized. For the 'pride of their nations'. Fumiko would have thought that living a peaceful life was more prideful than killing just to kill, but maybe that was just her...

"Many leaders and people of prominence from various countries are invited to attend this exam as guests, and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the strength that each ninja and each nation is developing."

Fumiko wondered if perhaps this kazekage was more violent than others Konoha had previously had. "If there is a gap in power between the countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja. And conversely, the request to countries that are weak, decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when it comes to negotiating with neighboring countries."

Politics, Fumiko thought.

"So, its important to show how much military strength our village has."

"Okay, but even so, why is it necessary for us to risk our lives?" The boy with the dog whom Fumiko had seen in the forest, hiding behind the bushes, blurted angrily.

"The country's strength is the villages strength. The villages strength is the shinobi's strength. And the true strength of the shinobi is only achieved when its pushed to its limits in a life and death battle." the hokage said. "This exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi, and hence, the strength of the nation itself. It's because this is an exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning."

"What?" Fumiko whispered to Gaara. "This guy's crazy!"

"Shh," he whispered back.

"And its for this very reason that for the strength of the nation that your forerunners fall in this exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

"But then why... did you use the expression of friendship before?" A girl said, angry now as well, or maybe frustrated.

"But you've only remembered half of what I said." the hokage declared. "You also mustn't have the wrong idea of the exams' meaning. This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of the shinobi, that is friendship."

"What?" Fumiko exclaimed, then smacked a hand over her mouth. Still, though, she muttered through her fingers, "That isn't friendship."

"The third exam is a fight for life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"Hmph." the blond boy said with a grin. "Well, he sure convinced me."

"A fight for life?" Fumiko said, worrying her hands together nervously. "Again?"

"Any test is fine," Gaara said. "Just tell me what the details of the exam are already. I can handle anything you throw at me."

The hokage nodded, raising his fist. "Very well then! Now listen closely; I'm going to tell you exactly what you'll be doing on the third exam."

Before he could, though, there was a blur on the stage just in front of him, and suddenly, there was a ninja kneeling down before him. The Genin in the room all gasped and tittered quietly amongst themselves, surprised. The ninja coughed.

"Lord Hokage," the ninja said. "Before you do, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed as proctor for the third exam, to speak first."

The hokage stared down at him for a while, and then, "So be it."

The ninja stood, back to them. As he spoke, though, he turned his head to look at them. Fumiko realized that he had dark circles under his eyes similar to hers, but unlike Fumiko, this man looked tired. "It's nice to meet you all. There's something I would like all of you to do before the third exam."

His words were interrupted by a violent coughing fit. He bent over, covering his mouth with his arm. There was silence as his audience waited. Fumiko realized he didn't just look tired, he looked worn. He looked sick. But when he looked back up, he was smirking.

"Uh... we have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one."

Gasps of surprise shot through the room. Gaara's eyes narrowed.

"A preliminary?" Fumiko said. "But... they all worked so hard to get here!"

"A what?" the pink haired girl said breathlessly.

"Preliminary?" the boy with the usually bored expression and a ponytail yelled. His face was tight with outrage. "Just whadda you mean by that?"

"I'm sorry," the pink haired girl said. Her head tilted in confusion, eyes wide. "Sensei, excuse me, but I really don't see the point. What's this preliminary all about? Why can't we just move on to the third exam?"

"Uh..." he said. "Well, you see... The first and second exams might've been too easy. The fact is, we never expected this many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chuunin exams, a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, btw, I realize that Gaara and the Sand Sibs finished way earlier canonically- but I changed it on accident, so here you go! :P


	12. The curse mark- battles and bloodlust

There was no warning, no rest, no time to lick wounds. All anyone could do now was sit back and watch the battles, and hopefully not have to fight until tomorrow. Fumiko knew that it was a little absurd to expect anyone- except maybe Gaara, and that wasn't just her own pride talking; he was the only one not injured- to be ready for something like that so quickly.

"Kankuro, Temari, are you guys okay to fight?" Fumiko asked. "You might be up next, and I don't want you two getting hurt after what you've already done." Fumiko thought for a second. She was really no good at healing.

"We're fine," Temari snipped, offended. "Watch the match."

"Sasuke is injured," Fumiko murmured. "So is the other guy, but Sasuke... more so. Preliminaries already! Sugar, couldn't they have given you a little more time? I mean, Kankuro, you look exhausted. Do you want some su-"

"I'm fine," Kankuro said and batted away the hands poking at his shoulders. He leaned against the railing with his trademark lazy smirk. The four of them had had a little more time than some- say, Sasuke Uchiha- to rest, because they had finished so early, but aside from food and water, they had not been healed, or given much if any time to sleep.

"But Kankuro, you should be more awake. You look tired."

"And you don't," he said. "Which isn't completely normal, but hey, if you can do it, so can I."

"Sugar." she said, holding the small bag out for him. When he refused and leaned away slightly from her offered treat, she repeated, "Sugar. It's good for you."

"No it's not." he retorted.

"Good for you." she explained. "Maybe not so much for your body... but still. Have some."

Kankuro protested, but Fumiko nagged him long after the match started, and eventually he reluctantly took a handful and dropped it on his tongue. After a moment, satisfied and confident that he wasn't going to spit it back out, Fumiko turned her attentions to Temari.

Temari, although slightly snarkier than Kankuro, was also a little bit wiser than him. Instead of challenging her, she accepted the sugar with an eye roll and a muttered something that Fumiko couldn't quite make out. But both of them seemed to blink into a higher state of awareness despite their reluctance. Sugar did that. Caffiene did, too, but they didn't have soda or anything.

Gaara ignored her outright, or at least, he appeared to. A few moments after Fumiko had given up, opting instead to just stand beside him with her arms at her sides and watch the match, he tapped the back of her hand lightly. Fumiko started and turned her head to look at him. His eyes were focused forward and down at the fight, where Sasuke had his opponent in some sort of chokehold, but his fingers just tapped her hand again.

Fumiko grinned. Discreetly enough, she reached into her bag and slipped a few pinches into his palm, which closed around it. She wasn't sure how he was going to eat it without ruining his uncaring, speculative posture, but he was Gaara. He'd find a way.

Fumiko's attention was snatched away when the battle below them changed for the bitter. The fight paused in a way that Fumiko had seen before- when your opponent knew you were going to lose. Blue light pulsed from the other ninja's hand, and for a moment, Sasuke just seemed to stare down at it, confused.

The ninja's hand rose, the blue light fading. It seemed stronger in a familiar way. Fumiko gasped lightly and made to stuff her sugar back into her satchel. This was bad. This boy whose name she knew, who was already in pain, was in trouble. "Oh no, that's-"

With blinding speed, the fist came down on the base of Sasuke's neck. Sasuke made a gasping sound like a dropped fish, body jerking like he'd been electrocuted. He hacked on nothing- the lack of something. He was suddenly weak, clutching at the fabric of his shirt where the blow had hit.

"What is it?" Gaara asked quietly. "What did you notice?"

"That wasn't his strength, it was Sasuke's," she said absently. Gaara always gathered intel on all of his possible opponents, but wasn't very good at recognizing techniques on his own besides the obvious. Fumiko's eyes weren't very sharp- she couldn't recognize the hand seals the average ninja was using, and she wasn't much of a long distance viewer, but sometimes, Fumiko just noticed things.

This particular piece of information probably would never apply to Gaara, mainly because if the man won this battle and went on to fight him, he wouldn't get anywhere near Gaara's body, but Fumiko told him anyways. "I think... I think he just stole his chakra."

"A chakra-absorption technique?" Kankuro said carelessly. "Interesting."

The man stood and jumped back, careful, and brushed himself off. Sasuke, below him, had turned pale, eyes almost closed in his pain. His body twitched. Before Fumiko could look away or react or anything, the man leaped to deliver a devastating blow. Sasuke was still on the floor. The pink-haired kunoichi leaned over the railing and yelled, "Sasuke, no!"

Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he grunted in pain. He shot up to a sitting position just in time to meet the masked man's hand. Fumiko realized he wasn't trying to punch Sasuke at all, but to try again to suck the strength from him. Sasuke cried out as he was slammed backwards back into the ground headfirst, blue light pressed into his forehead.

Sasuke clutched at the man's arm with quaking fingers.

Fumiko never picked sides in a fight without a reason. She always rooted for any of the Sand Siblings, of course, but aside from that, she was neutral- apart from the fact that she leaned a little towards not fighting at all. It was always just a competition, something to be watched. Maybe she would visit a fighter if they got too badly injured, but that was it.

When the masked man started laughing, watching Sasuke struggle underneath him, Fumiko picked a side.

A few tense, shocked seconds later, Sasuke's eyes rolled back up into his head, and his desperate snarl turned into more of an gaping mouth. One of his arms drooped and finally fell. There were a few surprised gasps from around her as his arm flopped onto the floor. The other only stayed on his captors because it was resting there.

"What the- my chakra, what are you doing?" Sasuke gasped. It was a hoarse whisper, and Fumiko somehow heard him. The man just laughed louder, and it wasn't the good kind of laughter. It wasn't.

"You're just noticing it now?" he gloated.

"My chakra... you're stealing it from me!" Sasuke wheezed.

The man chuckled loudly. "You finally caught on, huh?"

Sasuke didn't answer. As Fumiko watched, the fingers of his other hand lost their grip, and whatever leverage he had on it failed. His hand slipped away and his arm thumped down on the floor. Fumiko realized that this chakra thing, coupled with whatever was already wrong with Sasuke and all of his wounds, was dangerous. This man was dangerous.

For a minute Sasuke just struggled- or maybe that wasn't quite the right word for it. He was gasping in pain, fighting to breathe without screaming, trying to just stay awake so he could find a way out. But then he cried out, almost a scream, and fell limp. He wasn't unconscious, just unable to move anymore.

"Gaara, this is getting bitter," Fumiko said. "This isn't just a preliminary round anymore... I think this guy's trying to kill him."

"Get..." Sasuke's fist clenched, and much to the surprise of every person watching, he jerked his foot up and underneath his attacker in a violent kick that sent the man flying backwards off of him. "Off me!"

The blue light faded and the man grunted in surprise. Sasuke sat up, slowly, painfully, gasping through his teeth the entire time. His arms shook and his eyes winced, but he was still far from giving up. The man recovered and stood up. His... Fumiko couldn't tell if he was wearing sunglasses, or if his eyes were black, but he stared Sasuke down.

"So, you've still got some strength left, huh?" he said. "Impressive, for a guinea pig."

"Guinea pig?" Fumiko didn't know what to make of that. It seemed like an insult, a jibe, but it didn't make sense. Maybe he was saying that guinea pigs were weak and so was Sasuke? Or perhaps that Sasuke was harmless. She wasn't sure- Fumiko was familiar with insults, and had never heard that one unless... someone was being experimented with.

But why would he say that to Sasuke? What kind of experiment could possibly be going on? It might have meant that he had just learned about this chakra-absorption jutsu and was testing it on Sasuke, but that just didn't sit right with Fumiko. Something was off. Something bitter.

"Don't worry, little man." Yoroi said mock cheerfully, which Fumiko found offensive. "I'll make it short and sweet."

Fumiko found that offensive as well. Maybe this man just liked sour things...

His hands flared blue again in preparation. Then he rushed forward at Sasuke, who wobbled to his feet to defend himself. He ducked under the first blue-coated fist, and the second. The third came roaring right at his face, but Sasuke just slid back. The fourth whistled past his ear.

How was he moving so fast? He was already so weak, and that combined with the missing chakra should have left him on the ground. Fumiko glanced at Gaara. Perhaps this was why Gaara had wanted to know this boy's name... Fumiko had missed something major between the two.

Sasuke gasped and almost fell forward, but managed to turn it into a duck under the man's arm and sway back to his feet.

"But... he didn't touch him!" Fumiko exclaimed, leaning in to look. Or had he? Just how small did the contact have to be to work?

"What's the matter? Is that really the best you can do?" Yoroi jeered, turning with his fist raised towards Sasuke. Sasuke whipped around with a yell and a punch, but the man jumped with incredible speed to avoid it. He landed a few feet away. Sasuke was gritting his teeth, trying to stay on his feet, and from what Fumiko could see, he was breathing heavily.

Yoroi cackled.

"Hey, Sasuke!" The blond boy yelled over the rail. "Come on, man! What was that? You call yourself an Uchiha? You're gonna let this dude walk all over you! Come on, stop messing around and get it in gear!"

Fumiko blinked and just looked at him, unable to tell if he was being rude or not. At the same time that the words seemed bitter, the tone suggested that he was cheering Sasuke on. She wondered if that was normal for the blond boy. Sasuke turned his head to look up at him almost incredulously, eyes narrowed. All at once, though, after a second, Sasuke's eyes widened.

"I'll teach you to turn your back on me!"

Yoroi dashed towards him, blue fist raised. "Big mistake!"

Sasuke slid his gaze to him, and Fumiko noticed something different- Sasuke was still beat up, chakra drained, and tired. But now he seemed... determined? Confident? She wasn't sure, but whatever it was, it was promising.

"And it will be your last!"

Sasuke just stood there, waiting as if to be hit. Fumiko had no choice, though, to believe that wasn't what he was trying to do- the look in his eyes said otherwise. With an angry grunt, Yoroi thrust his fist forward. Sasuke dodged with deadly precision, then dodged another, then another and another. His face was set with determination, and he avoided punch after punch.

For a moment, it seemed as though he wouldn't make it.

Then he smirked.

Sasuke lunged forward, and was gone.

"Hu-?"

Fumiko didn't even get the word out before Sasuke reappeared beneath Yoroi and slammed his hand down on the concrete floor. He thrust his foot upward in a devastating kick, catching the man in the stomach and sending him flying, fifteen, twenty feet, above the platform on which Fumiko stood. She gasped. Sasuke hadn't disappeared. He'd just been moving really, really fast!

Before she could blink, Sasuke crouched and lunged, and came up behind Yoroi in the air. Fumiko couldn't quite make out what was happening- they were moving fast and up high- but Sasuke seemed to be saying something to the man, who looked shocked. Sasuke stabbed two fingers into his back.

"Th-the dancing leaf shadow?" Yoroi exclaimed.

"The... what?" Fumiko said as the ninja around her gasped.

"Now take this!" Sasuke snarled. Fumiko heard that.

All of a sudden, a cry- almost a scream- ripped out of Sasuke's throat. He stiffened and his head flung back. Fumiko stared up in surprise and tried to see what was wrong with him, but couldn't. Nothing had hit him, he wasn't any more injured than he had been when he started the move- but he was in pain.

Orange flames danced out of Sasuke's shirt collar, swirling up onto Sasuke's face. "No, not again! It keeps getting stronger and stronger!"

Now Fumiko was alarmed. Just what the sugar was that?

He cried out again. The flames continued to spread, but Fumiko realized it wasn't fire. It was more like... energy.

Then they started to recede.

All of a sudden, it was gone, and Sasuke seemed to flip over in midair with a palm on Yoroi's back.

"Here we go."

Sasuke spun the man around, using the momentum to turn himself as well, whipping his foot around. Yoroi blocked.

"You're no match for me!" the man growled.

Sasuke, apparently, could step through air. That was the only explanation as he ducked under Yoroi, seeming to crouch, before shooting his foot out on the other side of him. With a battle cry, he brought his fist and arm down on Yoroi's face. The man's head snapped downwards, and he was sent shooting down. But Sasuke wasn't done yet. In less than a second, less than half of a second or quicker, he was above Yoroi.

Then he was flipping down after him as the man fell.

"Come back here!"

His body frontflipped and twisted, and Sasuke delivered a crushing kick to Yoroi's stomach. "I'm not done yet!"

His fist drove into the man's stomach, then his other foot, faster than breath. Each time, Yoroi grunted. It all took place so quickly Fumiko barely processed anything happening at all- just how fast was this Sasuke boy, anyways? "Lion's barrage!"

Sasuke hit the ground hard, as did Yoroi, who's head snapped back. Sasuke skidded on his elbows and back. He tumbled, his feet coming up over his head, then landed on his stomach with a grunt on the other side of the arena than where he'd first touched down. Yoroi laid immobile on the ground, which was cracked and spiderwebbed around him.

Fumiko winced. That looked painful...

The proctor stepped forward in the dead silence, steps scraping against the ground loudly. He crouched beside the man and checked his pulse. "Well, this one's had it."

Behind him, Sasuke coughed. Breathing hard, shoulders heaving, he pushed himself to a sitting position slowly. When he'd taken a second to just breathe, Sasuke lifted his head and wiped a trail of blood from his chin. His eyes were hard and unreadable.

"I'm declaring this match over." the sick proctor announced, and stood. He pointed at Sasuke. "As the winner of this preliminary round, Uchiha Sasuke advances to the finals."

The blond boy beamed. "Way to go!"

Sasuke fell back, but there was a poof of smoke and suddenly the white-haired jonin was there. Sasuke thumped to a stop on his knee. The white-haired jonin was reading a book as if he was totally uninterested in the state of the boy, but just the fact alone that he'd stopped his fault suggested otherwise.

"Hm," he said. "Not bad. Funny, before the lion's barrage, your technique was very reminiscent of Gai's type of jutsu. You must have used your sharingan to copy it when you fought with Rock Lee that time."

"You okay?" the blond boy yelled. His voice was always at a constant loud volume, which wasn't a bad thing. But Fumiko definitely noticed whenever he spoke. She wanted to know the same thing- the brief bit of side-picking and rooting for the ninja had left her wanting to be his friend, or at least acquaintance. Fumiko smiled.

The blond boy giggled. "Hey, Sasuke! You won but in such an uncool way! You came out looking like you're the one who got all beat up!"

He did look like that, but that was a little bitter to say. Again, though, the blond boy was grinning good-naturedly. Sasuke, however, glared at him like he wanted to bite his head off his shoulders and burn it as Naruto cackled. He said something between breaths that Fumiko didn't hear.

"Give me a break, you little-" He barked, but then he sighed, closed his eyes, and smiled. "Oh, well..."

He smiled for a minute, just looking at something in the crowd. Then he flinched and grasped his shirt, looking at the ground in pain. He was breathing heavily, gasping. Fumiko thought the battle was over- now Sasuke could get some rest, and they could go on to the next battle. Key word being thought.

Beside her, Gaara stiffened.

She whipped her head around, and her smile dropped. Gaara was staring down at the injured Sasuke, breathing spastic, eyes wide. His body seemed to jerk, as if he was holding himself back from... Oh, no.

"Well, well, so that's how it's done." Fumiko recognized the voice to be one of the Sound ninjas that had tailed her during the second exam. When she glanced at him, his arms were crossed, smiling smugly as though he'd been the one who'd won the fight. Then, less interested in him than her best friend, she turned her attention back to Gaara.

Just as she put a hand on his arm, a shrill voice squealed, "Ha-haaa, haha, I knew all the time you'd be okay!"

There were murmurs through the crowd as everybody added their own two bits to the situation. Meanwhile, medic-nin came and collected Yoroi in a stretcher. Absently, Fumiko hoped he'd be okay; the battle had been pretty harsh on both parties. The medic-nin approached Sasuke.

"Gaara," she said. "Gaara, hey, calm down."

There seemed to be a brief argument between Sasuke and what appeared to be his sensei, but then Sasuke grudgingly stood and walked with the jonin to... somewhere, Fumiko wasn't sure exactly.

"Ah.. okay, then." the proctor said. "Let's move right on to the second match."


	13. A battle of the Spirits

Every head turned to the panel on the back wall. Fumiko's included, although she was a little worried now about Gaara. If he fought now, it could go downhill fast, and the problem was, once he started the fight, Fumiko wouldn't be able to get to Gaara without disqualifying him.

But if he was delayed, the problem might get worse. Fumiko knew when that kind of feeling overtook him, the most Gaara could ever do was control himself. But until the Shukaku was satisfied... He had already denied it once.

Names began to flash on the screen, green on black, too quickly for Fumiko to tell which one appeared before it was gone. It was almost dizzying. Like a gambling machine- who would win and who would lose? There was silence in the room, so that the clicking of the monitor was loud and harsh.

It dinged to a stop- Shino Aburame vs Zaku Abume. Fumiko didn't know either of them. Or, she thought she didn't, until that same cocky voice from the forest of death scoffed, "Huh! Which sucker is that?"

The kid from Sound. Zaku. Only now, he looked different than when he had chased Fumiko before- now, both of his arms were bandaged and in a sling. She wondered what on earth had happened to him during the second exam- both of his arms ruined in that short expanse of time?

Aside from his voice, there was total silence. At least until the Proctor coughed loudly, grabbing the attention of every Genin in the stands. He brought up his hands. "Step forward, please."

Zaku and who Fumiko assumed was Shino descended the stairs on either side of the platform, slowly making their way down to the arena. Shino didn't have many distinctive features that Fumiko could make out- he wore a large coat and dark sunglasses that blocked everything but a bit of skin and his dark hair.

"Very good." the proctor said. "Now if you're both ready, then we will begin." The proctor took a few steps back to distance himself. Close to the opposite side of the platform, Shino's teammates tittered quietly between themselves. "Candidates ready? Begin."

Shino said something from behind his jacket collar- muffled to Fumiko's ears, but she caught some words. Telling Zaku to forfeit before the match had even begun. Fumiko, herself, was a little worried. Two busted arms and expected to fight just like that; it was almost cruel.

Zaku didn't really seem all that intimidated. "Hmph. Well, whaddaya know, I've got a little movement in one of 'em! One good arm'll be more than enough to defeat you!"

He yanked one of his injured arms out of it's sling and crouched for half a second before rushing at Shino with the speed of a cat, starting the match. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough, because faster than Fumiko could see it, Shino's arm was up, blocking the punch she hadn't seen thrown.

"You... beat me... both your arms."

Not only was Shino's mouth covered, but he was being super-quiet as well! With the level of quiet whispering around her, Fumiko had to strain to listen to him, but at the same time, she made sure to stay near enough to Gaara that he remembered where he was. Wouldn't want him losing it here, no. But he seemed mostly aware of himself- struggling, yes, but aware.

"Yeah, well I got news for ya!" Zaku yelled. "Try this: Lightning Soundwave!"

There was an explosion of light from Zaku's palm, which was directly situated beside Shino's head. Smoke billowed around Shino, and Fumiko gasped as he was blown away. What in the world had just happened? So much for being injured, this Zaku guy seemed fine!

From the smoke rolled Shino, who'd been thrown by the blast. However, just as quickly as he appeared, he was gone again as the hazy smoke cloud expanded. Fumiko hoped he was okay. There were sharp intakes of breath on the platform from everybody who had just registered the attack. Smoke roiled. Zaku smirked and lowered his arm.

"Alright, fool. You had enough?"

Shino stood. Fumiko could see his outline, dark against the whiteness of the smoky haze.

"Huh?" Zaku seemed to just realize that Shino was standing, albeit slowly. A move like that, Fumiko realized, was probably supposed to blow out Shino's eardrums and scatter his brain. The Sound village. Of course. Zaku was literally using sound as a weapon. "There's no way!"

There was a moment of silence during which Shino straightened. The crowd stared. Shino didn't appear to even be injured- scratches and bruises, yeah, but those had been there before this battle had started.

"Hey-..." Zaku stuttered. "Wh-what..."

One small black dot crawled out onto Shino's face. Fumiko squinted at it.

Then little black dots were swarming, crawling out of Shino's heavy coat, out onto his face and his clothes. Shino didn't seem perturbed in the slightest; in fact, he seemed rather comfortable with it. Fumiko realized with a shock that they were bugs.

Zaku looked stunned and shocked for a second, just staring at Shino as if the boy with the bugs had grown another head. But he recovered quickly, regaining both his voice and the smug tone he used it with. Standing proud, he wiped all shock or creeped-out-ness from his expression. He would probably have been crossing his arms had one not been in a sling.

Fumiko was pretty sure Zaku didn't see the small army of bugs coming at him from behind. She could be wrong... but why the sugar would he still be standing there if he knew?

"Great. Now that you've freaked us all out, what happens next?"

Fumiko was debating whether to warn him or not. It seemed like a bad idea, because she would be interrupting the fight and ruining Shino's strategy, but she felt almost sorry for Zaku. The choice was made irrelevant, however, when Zaku finally recognized the sliding, hissing sound of hundreds of creepy crawlies charging directly at him. He gasped and whipped his head around.

For a full minute, he just stared at the bugs, face twisted in disbelief.

"They're a rare species of parasitic beetle that attack their prey in a swarm, eating it's chakra." Shino said, holding up a hand to his face to watch what was probably a bug on his fingernail. "An army of this size will suck you dry in less than a minute. Your only intelligent option is to forfeit the match. You can't fight two opponents at once."

Nobody was tittering now; they were all focused intently on the battle. Aside from the skittering of thousands of beetles on the arena floor, there was no sound, and so Fumiko could hear almost every word Shino said. Beetles that ate chakra? And here she was wondering if they were cute up close...

"If you use your good arm against me, my friends will swarm you from behind. Conversely, if you use your good arm to keep them at bay, then you'll have me on your blind side. Either way, your defeat will be certain. And unpleasant. It's wise to always have an ace in the hole," Shino added, bringing up his hands in the classic formation for a triggering jutsu.

Hmm, Fumiko thought. But then why isn't he surrendering?

All of a sudden, Zaku's face turned dark. Dark like a starless midnight, and dark like Gaara's own look when he lost control and just after. Not being able to control it. Wanting something. Being fed up. Dark like he was done. His teeth clenched together, eyes downcast, and Fumiko realized that Zaku wasn't done yet. But how, how could he fight in this situation?

Fumiko remembered a previous thought from just minutes before: so much for being injured.

So much for...

Zaku gave a cry of rage, throwing his one good hand forward, fingers splayed in Shino's direction. "Now you've done it! Now you've made me mad!"

One good hand.

Or not. Fumiko's theory was proven correct when, in his anger, Zaku slid his other arm from it's sling and flung it in the direction of Shino's bugs. His face was something that made Fumiko just a little uncomfortable. Cornered. Desperate. For some reason it reminded Fumiko of a tiger, backed up against a wall, vicious and vengeful. Shino lowered his hands, although he didn't seem very surprised. Ace in the hole.

Zaku smirked. His palm flinched, twitched, then seemed to painfully creak open. "Like you said yourself: Always have an ace in the hole."

His thought process was right up alongside Fumiko, who'd anticipated as much the minute Shino uttered those words. However, she wasn't sure if the tables had turned at all- Zaku was desperate, Zaku was mad, and Zaku was outnumbered. Shino, although a little startled, didn't seem all that put off.

"Right?"

"What the-" a boy snarled; Shino's partner. "I thought his other arm was shot!"

Zaku bellowed in rage again. Something was wrong, something besides Shino was making him angry. Fumiko wondered what it was. "I'll blow you away!"

But then there was blue- a blue light, or something, shining from Zaku's arms, his elbows, concentrated; they almost looked like saws chewing up logs. Bits of blue flew wildly, and for some reason they seemed different from the glow. "Ah- my arms!"

His hands went limp at his sides. Fumiko gasped. Her fingers clenched on the rail.

"What's wrong with them?"

He seemed frightened, genuinely terrified. He straigtened just a little, muscles tensing and flexing as he tried his absolute hardest to raise his hands again. When he did, it was only barely, but barely was enough. Fumiko saw black dots on his hands. He hissed, "Ugh- what?"

"They're a rare species of parasitic beetle that attack their prey in a swarm, eating it's chakra."

So that was what it looked like to get your chakra eaten. She decided not to touch his bugs, ever. Fumiko felt absolutely terrible for this boy, this Zaku- Shino wasn't even doing it out of malice. It was a fight. But still... to have this kind of thing happen when he'd just recovered from who knows what-

Shino moved to quickly for Fumiko's eye to catch, reappearing behind Zaku. He might have been peering at his own bugs, but with the sunglasses blocking his eyes from view, Fumiko couldn't be sure. Zaku flinched.

"Earlier, while I was distracting you with my helpful advice, I was also sending some of my friends to plug up those bothersome wind-holes in your hands. Both hands, just to be sure. You see, while an ace in the hole is good, two aces are better."

Zaku's face twisted again. With a cry he whipped around as if to- what? Shoulder his attacker off? Whatever he was trying to do, Zaku failed: Shino nimbly stepped out of the way and landed a crushing blow to Zaku's face with his fist, and Zaku was knocked backwards ten feet, hitting the ground hard. His yells cut off to a pained grunt.

The fight was over: that much was clear.

The proctor only stepped up to the fallen Genin, however, when a thin trail of blood dripped out of Zaku's mouth. When he got close enough, he crouched beside him, almost like he was casually checking to see if a person was sleeping, not making sure someone hadn't died. Fumiko was uncomfortable again. Would the sick proctor even care if somebody was killed?

The bandages on Zaku's arm, from what Fumiko could tell, were ragged. Red spots dotted the dirty cloth, because a lot of that blue light she had seen (now that she thought really hard about it) was the same energy that had almost exploded Shino's head. Fumiko just made sure she was close to Gaara- even in his half-bloodlust, his not-quite-warm body heat comforted her.

"The winner is Shino Aburame."

Just seconds later, there was a startled cry of, "living- inside of him?"

Fumiko didn't particularly like eavesdropping- it was rude- so she tuned out the excited chattering of a team she hadn't yet met. However, she caught words like Bug-tamer, sacred pact, and feed on their chakra. She wondered if they were talking about Shino, and if so, what a Bug-tamer was. Briefly she considered asking Shino after the match, but then, shivered at the idea of his bugs.

What would happen if they tried to eat hers? Shino would- most definitely- be attacked by Gaara, but what she meant was: could they even do that? With Fumiko's sporadic chakra, would the bugs even be able to eat it? Fumiko didn't care to find out. Although she was sure Shino was a nice guy, and that the bugs probably wouldn't hurt her on purpose, and this whole thought process was making Fumiko guilty, she was nervous of those bugs and decided not to approach them.

Zaku was loaded onto a stretcher carefully and taken away. Fumiko hadn't seen a medical room at all, now that she thought about it, but there must be another hidden room or something somewhere. Fumiko reached into her satchel, scooped out half a handful of sugar, and dropped it into her mouth, tilting her head back a little. The sweet taste reassured her a little.

"Man, that Shino is good!" the blond boy said, making a fist. "Who woulda thunk it, with him being so quiet! I can't wait to get my shot at him!"

Eventually Shino made his way back up to the viewing platform to join his teammates. They conversed quietly for only a few seconds, and then were silent.

"Uh, all right everyone. Moving right on to the third match." the proctor muttered.

There was a poofing sound. Curious, Fumiko leaned backwards to see what it was. That jonin, the sensei of the pretty boy Sasuke, was standing where he hadn't been just a second before. Sasuke, however, wasn't present. Once again, Fumiko didn't want to spy, so she just blinked at them and almost didn't hear any of their words. It was impossible not to hear the blond one. They were, obviously, worried about their teammate.

Fumiko almost forgot to look at the screen. It was only after a few gasps and Kankuro's grin that she remembered to look up, and by then, the names had already stopped spinning. Fumiko started: Misumi Tsurugi vs Kankuro.

Kankuro's turn. He didn't really seem all that worried, and Fumiko knew he had good reason to act that way. Because really, anybody had to admit that Kankuro was a formidable opponent, but she didn't really know anything about this Misumi Tsurugi. Poofing sensei temporarily forgotten, Fumiko turned her gaze to Kankuro and smiled.

"Be careful, Kankuro."

Even Gaara looked at him. His eyes showed his disdain for Kankuro's overconfidence. Fumiko, if she admitted it to herself, knew that Kankuro was a little bit cocky, but he was almost never beat, and so it balanced out. A little bit. Mostly. Kankuro ignored her warning- and offered sweets- and pushed off the bar to make his way down the steps and into the arena.

Misumi was yet another person whose face was almost completely covered. "I'm not like Yoroi," he said. "I don't get careless. Not even against kids."

Kankuro probably scoffed, but Fumiko didn't hear it. "A piece of advice," the masked man added. "Once I go into my jutsu, give up. Quick. If you do, I promise to make it short and painless."

Fumiko didn't choke back her giggle. Why should she? Kankuro, give up? Yeah, okay.

"Funny," Kankuro said. Fumiko could hear his smirk just as clearly as she could see it. He slid Crow off his shoulder, and it thumped down to the ground next to him audibly, his hand on it's top. "I was about to say the same thing. Though, I can't promise it'll be painless."

"Alright then." the proctor announced. "If you're ready, let the third match begin."

"Go, Kankuro!" Fumiko cheered. Kankuro, predictably, ignored her, but that was okay.

"Let me do you a favor and end this battle quickly," he said.

"You can't end it if I end it first!"

Fumiko had a split second to reminisce on childhood, preschool arguments before Misumi shot forward. Fumiko was becoming more and more used to following the super-speed moves, and actually saw the punch thrown this time, and Kankuro's zipping hand as he blocked just before it would have slammed into his nose.

Fumiko was accustomed to watching battles with minimal movement- because the only fights she really ever watched were Gaara's, and he hardly moved, and the battle was always over in seconds. These were strong, seasoned ninja, who apparently had learned a lot despite their Genin ranks.

These fights were quicker, harder, and so much more intense now that both opponents had a chance of winning, and Fumiko had to try and anticipate each fighter's movements and keep her eyes just in front of their paths to follow them at all. She wondered if maybe she would be that fast someday.

Fumiko dismissed the thought. She would never need to fight as much as these ninja had to in order to move like that. At least, she hoped she wouldn't.

A startled grunt from Kankuro mixed with hers when his opponent's hand suddenly liquefied- no, stretched like it had no bones, curling around Kankuro's defensive arm. Then Misumi's legs seemed to go boneless as well, wrapping around Kankuro's legs and neck.

In seconds, the sand puppeteer was immobilized. Fumiko gasped.

"What the sugar kind of jutsu is that?" she exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it. How is it even possible?"

Kankuro dropped the Crow and shifted his feet the best he could bending over slightly, struggling to keep himself balanced. His face was soured with what looked like a mix between a grimace and a sneer, which was only amplified when combined with his face paint.

"Whoa!" the blond boy seemed completely unconcerned about the outcome of this fight, smiling down at the arena in excitement. "What's up with that guy's body? That's freaky. I wish I could do that!"

"I dislocate every one of my joints, softening my body, then with my chakra I can control it perfectly."

Fumiko was alarmed. That sounded like an extreme way to win a preliminary. A painful one, too.

"The more you struggle, the tighter I'll squeeze. I don't know what you're carrying in there, but as long as I have a hold of you it makes no difference. I could break your neck right now if I wanted to, and I will unless you give up."

Death threat. Definitely that was a death threat. Why wasn't anybody else reacting? Not that this guy could actually kill Kankuro, but still. Death threat. Bitter stuff, those. Kankuro smirked.

"You wanna bet?"

It seemed like a cocky thing to say, and when Misumi said, "Do you want to die?" and squeezed so that popping sounds like a dislocating spine were heard, it seemed like a pretty stupid one as well.

"You fool," Kankuro said. "You're the one who's gonna die here."

There was a snapping sound, a final sound that silenced the breath of the crowd. A sound that sent shivers down one's spine, a sound that could only be made by splitting bone.

Kankuro's head flopped to his chest, neck limp.

"I think... he broke his neck." a boy in a green jumpsuit said slowly.

There were gasps of horror from the other Genin.

"What's the big deal?" Gaara said quietly. Ah. So he'd figured it out as well.

The proctor sighed.

And Fumiko might have been sad, too, if it was actually Kankuro Misumi was holding. A sound that could only be made by splitting bone... or strong wood being snapped. It made Fumiko twitch every time she heard it.

Chips and shards of china shattered on the ground at the Crow's feet. Fumiko knew it would take a while for Kankuro to fix it, but it was far better than Kankuro getting his neck broken, so she doubted he'd complain all that much.

Crow's broken head swiveled around to look at Misumi. Fumiko made a little eeping sound when she saw the face- some of the skin colored china had fallen off, leaving the crow's damaged left eye to stare out of Kankuro's face. It was creepy, especially combined with the cracks and gappy smile.

Misumi choked on his own gasp, recoiling slightly.

"Now, it's my turn, so say goodbye!" The tone was cheerful, but Kankuro of course was being dramatic, and so the mouth moved stiffly like some doll's from a horror film.

The Crow's many arms burst out of Kankuro's clothing, wrapping quickly around Misumi's entire torso and yanking him close. The bendy limbs went limp, and probably were relocated again, because the man looked completely normal. The crow's now fully uncovered face looked back at him.

"The Crow sure is handy, huh?" Fumiko said to Gaara and Temari. "When do you think he switched it out?"

Just then, the wrapped bundle on the ground jerked. Then Kankuro's hand slid out and tugged on a piece of the cloth, pulling it all off of him at once in an almost pretty, swirling fashion around him and above his head. Kankuro himself was crouched on one knee, arm raised, back turned to his opponent.

The wrappings fell in a perfect circle around him. Fumiko couldn't really make out Misumi's expression all smooshed up into the Crow like he was, but she doubted he was very collected. Fumiko hoped Kankuro wasn't actually going to try to kill him- Fumiko had asked him about that, but he never seemed to listen.

The Crow's arms tightened even further.

"Temari, Kankuro's not... he's not going to kill him, right?"

Temari didn't respond, just glanced at her for a second before looking back to the fight. Fumiko's stomach dropped.

"Fumiko." Gaara said. "Stop worrying."

"But-!" she protested and was cut off again.

"Misumi... can dislocate all his bones." Gaara reminded her quietly. All at once, Fumiko understood. She beamed.

"Oh! Oh, right!"

Misumi groaned in pain, stifling screams as he was crushed to death. Fumiko's smile dimmed just a little bit. Whether Kankuro was trying to kill the guy or not, this was unnecessary. Fumiko decided she should really make brownies for the competitors- except maybe for that laughing one, Yoroi.

"Enough!" Misumi finally cried. "I give!"

"But if your bones are all crushed, just think of how much more flexible you would be." Kankuro taunted without turning around. He pulled at a piece of cloth still on his face.

Misumi fell.

"Because his opponent is no longer able to continue, the winner is Kankuro." the proctor announced.

"Two against one is hitting below the belt, isn't it?" the blond one said. "I mean, is that thing even fair, Kakashi-sensei?"

"It's not really two against one; it's a puppet, not another ninja."

...

After they took Misumi away on a stretcher, the competitiors were given time to take a break.

"Kankuro, did you really have to break his spine?" Fumiko nagged. "He gave up. You didn't have to keep on crushing him like that, I mean, it's kinda bitter."

"So what? He wasn't gonna die." Kankuro shrugged. Fumiko and Kankuro had gone to find the bathrooms, leaving Temari and Gaara back at the arena. It made Fumiko a little uncomfortable, but she had to go to the restroom and besides, Gaara couldn't go with her everywhere.

"That's not the point," Fumiko said, then changed the subject. "Anyway, I'm thinking of baking something for everyone. Whaddaya think I should make- fudge or white chocolate brownies?"

"Fudge," he answered immediately. "But you really gotta quit baking stuff whenever someone gets hurt."

"It's only polite," she said. "Especially when I happen to know the guy who beat them up. It'll also be nice after all these preliminaries are over, don't you think? They're pushing you guys a little hard. And besides, it's a great way to get to know people!"

Fumiko grinned and licked the sugar off her hand. Kankuro didn't press the subject, probably because he really liked fudge brownies and knew Fumiko would give him some. Instead he said, "Look, there's the bathrooms."

...

They made it back just in time for the next preliminary to be announced. Names swirled up onto the panel as Fumiko took up her spot beside Gaara, and Kankuro beside her.

"Well, whoever gets picked it'll be two weirdos." the blond boy said. "This place is chock full of them!"

"You're one to talk."

"Hey!"

Fumiko realized she was listening in. Oops.

The buzzer on the panel sounded, and Fumiko looked at the two names with interest. In a way, the blond boy was right- this exam was full of interesting ninja, and she was almost anticipating the next fight. Not anticipating the actual fighting, but she wanted to see who was picked.

Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka.

Now who were they?

Fumiko was pleasantly surprised when a ninja she recognized- the pink-haired kunoichi from pretty boy Sasuke and the blond boy's team- stepped into the arena. But something was different. Fumiko realized that her hair was shorter, much shorter, and a little ragged, like it'd been cut with a knife rather than scissors.

The other girl was white-blond, with a long lock of hair hanging directly over one eye. The rest of it was tied up into a high ponytail. She wore purple in the way her opponent wore pink, and by the fierce expression on both of their faces, Fumiko guessed they were either rivals, or they just really hated each other, or maybe both.

"I never thought... I'd fight you." the blond one said. Although her voice was at a normal volume, there was something about it- a bit of highness, something- that made it loud and clear to Fumiko's ears. "Or at least I didn't think it would happen this soon. Don't expect me to go easy on you."

"Go Sakura!" the blond boy yelled. "You can do it! Don't lose!"

Sakura. Fumiko filed that name away. The pink-haired girl was Sakura Haruno, which meant the blond one was Ino Yamanaka. There was something in Ino's face... regret? No, that wasn't it... it was impossible to tell from this distance.

The proctor raised a hand. "Begin."

No hesitation. Both of them were off like shots, racing toward one another. Not quite as fast as the previous fighters, but still, they were quick. Fumiko shifted her weight and felt the springs in her prosthetic bend slightly.

Sakura launched a kick that Ino easily dodged. Immediately afterwards Ino threw a punch but Sakura just ducked past it and turned to face her again, kicking down in a sweeping way. Ino jumped over the attack, then quickly dropped as Sakura kicked at her head. She leapt nimbly away.

Quick as a flash, Sakura pulled out multiple kunai and launched them. Ino, however, just leaned to the side and let them past, snatching one out of the air with fast fingers. A half second later she sent it screaming toward Sakura, who had already anticipated the move and thrown another.

The kunai collided in midair with a ringing clang, then fell to the ground.

Fumiko's attention was temporarily snatched away by the ninja on the other side of the viewing platform.

"Sakura's totally blowing Ino out of the water in this battle!" the blond boy exclaimed. The ponytail boy said something under his breath, and the blond boy turned on him. "What did you say to me?"

"You wanna make something of it then go ahead. Cause you'll lose."

"Who do you think you are!"

"That's it. That's as good as kunoichi can get at hand to hand combat?"

It seemed to be a harmless, genuine question, but even Fumiko had to blink at it. Did he just say-?

The blond boy turned to the pale-eyed ninja with murder in his eyes. "WHAT?"

"It's not because they're girls, you know, Neji," a girl with her brown hair in two buns chided. "It's just that those two are using kidgloves. It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman in battle."

Fumiko's eyes were snatched away again as Sakura lunged, launching a kick and a punch in quick succession. Ino barely dodged both, but managed to block a second punch and lock up the next move, kicking at the same time as Sakura and nullifying the attack.

There was a brief pause, and then both ninja tried to rush the other. They ended up in reversed spots. Ino threw a punch and Sakura blocked it on her arm, then a second, but the third caught her totally off guard, slamming into her stomach.

Sakura bent in two, air whooshing from her. She spat.

Seeing an opening, a chance, Ino pulled her arm back and took a direct shot at Sakura's face. At the last second, though, Ino seemed to jerk, and her fist went slack. She ended up slapping Sakura instead, which wasn't really effective.

Both kunoichi froze. Sakura stared at Ino. Ino slowly brought her hand up to gaze at it, in shock or confusion or both, like it had betrayed her and she didn't know why. It was quiet; the fight stilled.

Fumiko wasn't sure what was going on, but she barely dared breathe.

"All right, listen up, Ino." Sakura said at last. Her fists clenched. Ino blinked. "I'm not going to fight with you over Sasuke."

"What'd you say?" she demanded.

"I'm not the weak, needy girl I used to be." Sakura said forcefully, eyes narrowed. "You're not even on my radar, and you're not Sasuke's type, Ino-pig!"

Fumiko supposed that whole Sasuke thing must have been one of the causes of whatever rivalry the girls had. A big part, because for some reason, Ino seemed to take that as an extreme insult, that she wasn't pretty boy Sasuke's type. Fumiko didn't quite understand the sentiment, but she knew that this fight was going to get ugly soon.

Ino-pig. Sakura's face was scrunched when she said it, like she was angry, like she was disgusted, but something wasn't right about either of those two descriptions. Either way, the things she was saying were rude and bitter.

Ino's face suddenly was no longer confused. It was pissed. She looked about ready to rip someone's head off- preferably Sakura's. "Sakura, you better watch your step! Do you have any idea who you're mouthing off to? Ugh! Don't press your luck with me, you little billboard brow!"

"Did you... hear that stuff? Sakura... was so mean." the blond boy said in disbelief. "That's out of line, isn't it? She sure made Ino mad; I've never seen her look so scary."

"So I'm a bud that hasn't flowered, huh?" Sakura said coldly.

There was quiet then. Fumiko could have sworn she saw a fleeting smile cross Sakura's face, but then it was gone. She must have imagined it, and besides, she couldn't see their faces all that clearly from this high up, so she doubted Sakura had smiled. Why should she?

Slowly, deliberately, Sakura slid off the headband that tied her hair up. Fumiko wasn't sure why- it was pretty that way, highlighting her large forehead but still showing off the cuter parts of her face- but it seemed to have some kind of effect on Ino. No, this wasn't just Sasuke. This was something else, something old.

"What... what in the world is going on?" the blond boy said. His voice was rough like it always was, kind of scratchy, but it was also perplexed. "Why are those two getting so worked up just looking at each other?"

Fumiko didn't hear the answer. She was intently watching the standoff below her, heart almost pounding. This wasn't just a fight. This was something... something. She almost wished she knew what they were thinking about, just gazing at each other with such hard eyes.

Finally, Ino scoffed. Her hair covered most of her face, so Fumiko couldn't make out her expression, but she heard the accepting melancholy in Ino's voice when she spoke at last, reaching down for something. Her headband. "I understand... Sakura."

Both kunoichi tied their headbands onto their foreheads, the way they were supposed to. Not that Fumiko ever really cared about that- it wasn't like Gaara or Temari or Kankuro wore them correctly. Now, Fumiko was curious, and completely unbiased. Both girls appeared to be equal, so who would win?

Like the first time, without warning, they rushed at each other. Something was different, though, this time around- they were faster, stronger, unleashed. Their fists collided in the middle, both of them grunting, almost growling. Power seemed to rush from the contact.

There were a few sharp intakes of breath as the two broke apart, sliding on their heels. Both girls took up fighting stances, as if the fight was just beginning. And for all Fumiko knew, it might have been.

Again, they both broke into a run toward the other. This time, however, Sakura's hands flashed together into jutsu seals that Fumiko followed, and easily recognized. Fumiko didn't know many jutsus, but this one, she was familiar with. A clone jutsu. Sakura split into three, both clones phasing into existence around her.

"This isn't just some ninja academy graduation exam!" Ino said, still running, and so her voice was choppy and a little hard to catch. "Do you really think you can beat me with a basic ninja art like that?"

The three Sakuras dashed forward. Ino halted and put her hands up in an almost-jutsu, taking up a defensive position.

Before she could react, however, the clones and one real girl were right on top of her. One poofed, then the other, and then as Ino cried out in surprise and wheeled backward, the real Sakura's fist crunched into the side of Ino's face. Fumiko winced as Ino was sent flying backwards, hitting the ground once, twice, and then sliding to a stop.

"I'm not some crybaby anymore! You play with fire, and you're gonna get burned! Let's see your best, Ino!"

Ino pulled herself up to one knee, wiping at the corner of her mouth. "It's not like I needed your invitation, you know," she snarked. "I'll show you my best, but you're not gonna like it!"

She stood.

"You're doing awesome, Sakura!" the blond boy cheered. "Awesome! Believe it!"

"Yeah!" the boy with a black bowl cut said.

The two ran again, and Ino raised a fist. Sakura followed suit, but when they both punched, the other caught it. They ended up in what almost looked like a dance, close-up and grasping the other's fist, struggling for purchase, for leverage against the other. When none became available and the pressure was to great, they broke apart, both slipping out weapons even as they jumped back.

Fumiko saw nothing until the two small throwing stars clanged and sparked in midair.

The battle raged for a few more minutes, fast paced and intense. Punches and kicks were thrown, dodged, and received on both ends, harsh and loud. Both of them grunted and were close to panting from exertion. They both swung again, muttering to themselves, and both hits landed. They cried out as their heads snapped back and they were thrown to opposite ends of the arena.

"Whoa..." the blond boy breathed. He was almost quiet that time.

Both kunoichi struggled to their feet, breathing hard. They both looked up, and for a second they just watched each other, gazes hard and unreadable.

"This isn't how this was supposed to go!" Ino cried. Her hair waved and bobbed. "How can you be evenly matched with me?"

Sakura scoffed and then smirked. "I guess you're right, Ino. Your obsession with your looks and your hair can't be surpassed. I've been training too hard to worry about that stuff."

Ino's face darkened with rage. She slid something from her pocket; a kunai.

"You're gonna pay for that! I've had enough of you making fun of me!"

Is she going to throw it? Fumiko wondered. I would think so, but it kind of looks like she's about to-

There was a dull sound as Ino sliced through the top of her ponytail. Fumiko started. In Ino's hand, the rest of her ponytail was gripped, and all that was left was what almost looked like a bun. It was a surprisingly clean cut, considering she hadn't been looking when she'd done it.

Sakura barked a short laugh. "You think that'll help?"

Ino snapped. "That's it!" she yelled, flailing her arms slightly in anger. Then she threw her hair forward, where it scattered on the floor between them, with a few stray strands floating in the air. It almost looked like straws of hay from this distance. "See? I don't need this!"

'And I thought she looked scary before," the blond boy muttered.

Ino's hands snapped together. "All right, I'll put an end to this right now! Get ready to tell everyone you lost to me, billboard brow!"

"Wait!" someone exclaimed. The boy on her team, the one with the short ponytail. Huh, Fumiko thought. Sorta like Ino's now. "Don't tell me she's going to-!"

Ino thrust her hands forward, fingers shaped into something like... a circle? Fumiko couldn't tell. What kind of jutsu was this?

"Look, I know you're frustrated, Sakura said in a not quite but almost smug voice, "But that's pointless."

"Oh yeah?" Ino challenged. She sounded like a desperate animal. "We'll just see about that!"

"Ninja art, mind transfer jutsu," Sakura said. "It's a jutsu that allows the user to take over the opponent's spirit, and wrest control of their body away from them for a few minutes by discharging all of their own spiritual energy and striking their enemy with it. But despite it's power, there are major flaws to this formidable jutsu that makes it extremely dangerous. First, the user's discharged spiritual energy can only fly straight, and it moves at a very slow speed."

The whole time Sakura spoke, Ino didn't lower her hands. She just stared as Sakura recited what could have been a paragraph from one of Gaara's old ninja textbooks from when he went to Suna Academy.

"Second, even if the spiritual energy misses the enemy, it can't return to the user's own body for several minutes. And this, in battles that are most often measured in seconds. I should add that while the spiritual energy is gone, the user's body- your body, Ino- can't move at all. It'll be little more than a doll."

"So what? I don't care!" Ino exclaimed hotly. "I won't know unless I try!"

Sakura, still smiling, tensed to run. "If you miss, it's all over." she taunted. "You do know that, right?"

There was a small tk sound. The boy with the short ponytail seemed very distressed, clenching the rail in front of him like he was trying to strangle it.

Sakura ran.

"Don't do it!" someone yelled.

"Ninja art: mind transfer jutsu!" Ino said.

And they were still.

Sakura's head hung. Ino slumped to her knees.

A tense silence.

Then Sakura laughed. "He he he. What an unfortunate choice, Ino."

"It didn't work," Fumiko said.

"You're done, Ino." Sakura took a step toward the slumped figure. Fumiko sighed just a little bit- that wasn't how she had expected this fight to end. Not quite this way, not with a desperate last attempt with no chance of working.

Then, suddenly, Sakura gasped and slammed to a stop mid-step. "No way!"

Fumiko picked out the blue glow. It was barely visible, but it was there- a chakra string? Fumiko's excitement grew, and she chewed nervously on sugar. That's what she had expected- something, something smart! Not what Ino had made them believe.

"You fell for it, Sakura." Ino taunted. She raised her head. "Ha. I finally caught you."

"It can't be!" Sakura exclaimed. Her eyes were wide.

Ino laughed. Her back was to the viewing stands, and though Fumiko didn't see her face, she heard her triumphant, gloating smirk. "I'm afraid it can. All those hand signs earlier were just an act to fool you. To trick you into running right into the trap I'd laid for you. And it worked. Now you can't move at all, can you? You're being held by a special rope that's made from my hair with my chakra poured into it."

Sakura's breath caught.

"Now I can take over your body and make you say that you're giving up on this match!"

What? Make her do what? "But the proctor heard that, right?" Fumiko said, looking up. "It won't count... right?"

She received no answer from any of the three Sand Siblings. Fumiko's eyes widened and she looked back down at the fight quickly enough to make her neck pop. Sakura's face was cornered, now. Not Ino's anymore. Ino's hands snapped back into a circle.

"There's no way I'll ever miss with this jutsu now."

"You gotta get outta there, quick!" the blond boy yelled.

Sakura twitched slightly, like she was trying to yank free, but to no avail.

"Now," Ino said. "Mind transfer jutsu!"

Ino slumped again. Fumiko watched intently as once again, Sakura's head went down, and then, her feet were free. "That's really unfortunate."

Missed again? But how?

"Nice one, Sakura!" the blond boy yelled.

Fumiko's hair stood on end when Sakura said, with two voices curled atop and into each other, "Not quite."

Sakura- no, Ino- stood, smirking, almost seeming interested in the sigh of her own collapsed form. Fumiko's brain whirred. It had worked this time. But now, she wasn't so sure she liked that- Ino was planning to cheat. Cheat bad.

"I don't get it. What's with Ino? And with Sakura? I mean, Sakura's acting really strange, don't you think?" the blond boy said. "This is her chance!" He pumped his fist into the air. "Do it already Sakura! Attack!"

"No..." Fumiko said. "No... she can't. It's too late."

More muttering. These ninja were so quiet.

"Temari," Fumiko said, because out of the four of them, Temari was the best at identifying specific jutsus. "What's going on down there, exactly?"

Sakura smiled.

"It worked," Temari said quietly. "Sakura's spirit has been taken over."

Not-Sakura-but-Ino raised her hand. "I, Sakura Haruno, would like to say... that I with-"

"Nooo!" Naruto yelled, interrupting her. "Sakura, don't!"

"That's cheating!" Fumiko yelped. Forcing somebody to withdraw with a mind transfer jutsu? That was bitter, really, really bitter. "Like really cheating!"

"Ugh... man, that kid's just so annoying!" Ino's voice was evident now. It wasn't a creepy mix of the two, and it wasn't a Sakura imitation. Fumiko wondered briefly how that worked, since Sakura didn't have Ino's vocal cords, but the thought was quickly discarded. The blond boy leaned over the railing like Sakura/Ino was having trouble hearing him.

"You worked so hard to get here, Sakura! Don't disgrace yourself now by losing to that lame Ino girl!"

Rude? Yes. Called for? Also yes.

Sakura's body seemed to shiver, to waver, and Ino gasped. "What?"

Then she started to moan as her arms went slowly, jerkily, like a mannequin's, to her head. Sakura/Ino's knees bent, and as... Fumiko was going to say they. As they collapsed, they whimpered, not quite in pain.

"Ahhh! What's happening?" they cried. Though, she figured that was more Ino. And what was happening? So far as Fumiko knew, it was impossible to break a mind-transfer jutsu unless it was the user that stopped it. Was Sakura..?

They gasped and writhed on their knees, clenching fingers into their hair in almost-pain. "Sakura-! This can't be happening-!"

"What's wrong? Are you withdrawing?" the proctor asked. "Well, are you or not?"

They- no, Sakura- suddenly cried out in rage or triumph. "No, I will not be withdrawing today or any other day!" Her arms flung wildly into determined fists. Fumiko smiled.

"Ahh- Ugh- un-..." They trembled and clutched their head. Fumiko waited for a few tense seconds, rooting for the not-cheater (because come on, it would have been okay if she'd used the mind-transfer jutsu to defeat Sakura, but forcing her to forfeit? Not sweet at all.) And then, "Release!"

Sakura's fingers came together, and she was just that: Sakura.

Ino's body jolted, and then they were both gasping for air, breathing hard.

Then Ino said, in a ragged voice, "How can you have two spirits in you? Just what are you, anyway?"

"Uh! What?" Fumiko blurted.

Sakura grinned tiredly. "Someone who's just as strong as she is beautiful. I mean, a girl's gotta be tough if she's gonna survive something like this."

After a second, they both wobbled to their feet. The funny thing was, the two had barely been hit the entire fight. They bore the scrapes and scratches of the forest of death, but aside from that, only one hit had landed the entire match. No, they weren't so tired because of that.

The battle had been a clash of minds, not jutsus. Or, spirits, she supposed. A battle of the spirits. Fumiko liked that.

It was deja vu when they both rushed each other at the same time, almost synchronized. A battle of the spirits, Fumiko thought. One won. One lost. Now, nothing left, the fight was over, really. Nothing left. It was just by will of fire that they both fought until nothing became even less.

Their knuckles just barely brushed.

Nothing left in either of them.

Both fists collided with the cheek of the other, and while Sakura's head jerked up, Ino's was forced down. Both, however, were knocked back. Both headbands fell, flew, clattered on the ground with loud bangs. Both kunoichi... no. Both ninja fell.

Neither got back up.

"Since neither combatant is able to continue, by double knockout, no one gets through the fourth preliminary. This match is over."

There was an instant cacophony of noise from everyone, not just the two teams. Both of the girl's sensei took them up to the viewing platform, and the other competitors swarmed around them. They were unconscious. Fumiko stayed with the Sand Siblings, knowing she would go later to see them.

Sakura and Ino. Fumiko wasn't sure what kind of history the two had, but now, sitting side by side- propped up against a wall- sleeping soundly, they almost looked... like best friends.

"Ironic, isn't it, Gaara?" Fumiko said in an uncharacteristically soft voice. "A battle of the spirits in which one won and one lost. They ignored that, though: it was the battle of brute strength that mattered to them. One over the other in triumph; that's what they wanted."

Gaara watched her through clouded eyes. "I don't understand."

"Oh, never mind," she said. "Sugar?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so there will be about 3 battles per chapter. That's all. Review!


	14. Chapter 14

After the last match, the other Genin eventually left the unconscious kunoichis on the wall and crowded by the rail again to watch the monitor. Some, Fumiko came to notice, were getting a little bit antsy. She didn't know why, but most ninja seemed to view fighting as some sort of fun activity, a bonding exercise, or something. Fumiko got that it was a chance to prove themselves, but she wasn't sure why it was so enjoyable to punch someone in the face.

Anyway, when it came time for the monitor to buzz and flash again, all ninja who hadn't yet fought turned their eyes toward it. Some, like the boy in a green jumpsuit and orange legwarmers, were hopeful, and some, like the boy with a ponytail, seemed completely bored with the entire thing. She recognized the look on his face as the same one she wore after a few weeks awake- like he wanted to take a nap.

Fumiko nodded when the names came up: Ten Ten vs Temari. So far, from what she'd seen, all three of the Sand Siblings were going to make it through these exams. There was a lot more to go through, but with Kankuro's easy win, Gaara's brute strength, and from the level of skill Fumiko had seen so far, the three of them would be returning to Suna as chuunin.

"Good luck, Temari!" Fumiko exclaimed, laughing a little. Temari dodged away from her hand, then rolled her eyes. She made her way down the steps, and a few moments later, the girl with two buns from the other viewing platform, whom Fumiko had seen talking to Neji earlier, followed suit. They met down in the arena. The proctor stepped up to them.

"For the fifth match," the proctor said, looking first at the other girl, and then Temari. "Ten Ten, Temari, get ready."

The two ninja took a step closer to each other. Temari put a hand on her hip and smirked in a fashion similar to Kankuro, although hers was less lazy and more sharp. They stared each other down, and Ten ten was smiling as well, albeit more in determination and anticipation.

"Come on Ten Ten, you can do it! Show him who is best!" the boy in the green jumpsuit said, putting his fists I the air. The boy called Neji was saying something quietly, but he seemed to always speak in low tones. If she wanted to, she might have been able to catch his words, but she didn't. Instead, she looked down to the impending battle briefly, wondering what the other girl, Ten ten, would do against Temari.

Fumiko looked up at Gaara, who was staring intently at a spot directly across from them, not at the match. Curious, Fumiko followed his gaze to see Neji staring right back. Both seemed unperturbed with the other's gaze, and the quiet intensity was almost overbearing. Fumiko poked his shoulder.

"Huh- Gaara? What's up? The match is about to start." she said.

Gaara just replied with a "Hmm" and looked back down at the fight.

"Begin." the proctor announced.

Right away, Ten ten jumped back.

"All right, Ten ten! Keep her guessing!" the jumpsuit boy cheered.

"Go for it! You have the power of youth!" the man next to that boy- who looked oddly just like him- yelled. His voice was deep.

"Come on, Ten ten! Send that girl back to her village on a stretcher!" the boy cried, flailing his arms up and down like he was holding pom poms. Fumiko glanced up at him in shock. "We're right behind you all the way, Ten ten!"

"Hey!" Fumiko muttered.

"Let's hear it!" the man said cheerfully, raising one fist into the air. "Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?"

The boy cheered like he was at a rock concert, throwing both bandaged fists into the air (they didn't seem injured.) His eyes were large and very round. They both were very loud, and even the blond haired boy beside them was covering his ears. "Whoo! Ten ten! Woo-hoo!"

"What are you waiting for?" the proctor complained. He still hadn't moved. "I did say to begin."

"She's waiting for Temari to make the first move, I think," Fumiko thought aloud. Kankuro glanced at her sideways, and Gaara just tilted his head slightly and waited. "See how far away she is? Probably she's a long range fighter."

"You think so?" Kankuro squinted. "I don't see any weapons."

"Ha!" Temari snorted. "Guess she's waiting for me to make the first move. Big mistake, 'cause the first move I make will be the last thing you see."

Temari took a step forward tauntingly, and Ten ten took a step back. For some reason, her expression already looked guarded. Fumiko realized that out of the ninja she'd seen so far, Ten ten appeared to be the only one that wasn't completely overconfident with her own ability. She was being cautious, which meant that she most likely didn't have a particular ability, and that Fumiko's previous conclusion was correct- average strength, long-range weapons that kept the enemy at bay.

"Oh, c'mon! I don't want this match to be over too quickly." Temari snarked. Her eyes were scrunched in a taunting kind of anticipation. She hadn't fought a decent opponent in a while, or at least that's what she kept telling Fumiko. "So why don't you make the first move? C'mon, girl-" Temari raised her fist slightly. "Show me what you got."

Temari was, as one could guess, a master at goading the enemy into doing something they shouldn't do.

"Okay, if you insist," Ten ten said. "But remember: you asked for it!"

She leaped into the air, and her arm whipped forwards. Weapons they hadn't seen before- and that Fumiko couldn't see now- flew faster than sight, but Temari just trained her gaze forward at them. There were echoing clangs as the shuriken hit the ground around Temari's feet.

"I- missed her?" Ten ten gasped. She landed a good ten feet away from Temari. "There- There's just no way!"

"What was that?" Temari said with a sarcastic laugh. "A warm up exercise? Or maybe you're a little nervous, and it's affected your aim- is that it?"

"Why does she always have to be so bitter with the insults?" Fumiko asked. "It's not like it would affect the battle if she just told them she uses wind. They still wouldn't be able to hit her..."

"That's just Temari," Kankuro said with a shrug. "You're the only person I know who doesn't do trash-talking."

"You say that about everything."

"Because it's always true."

"Drat!" Temari sighed. "I was hoping I would at least work up a sweat. But forget that idea, if this is the best you've got."

Ten ten scowled.

"What is going on?" the boy in green exclaimed, eyes even wider than normal. "How could she have missed? It is incredible!"

"It's impossible!" the man beside him said with a grunt. "Ten ten's aim is perfect. She always hits her mark."

"Yup," Fumiko said to Kankuro. "Long-range weapons fighter."

"How do you know?" he asked, then shook his head. "Never mind. It's not like I'm ever right when you say something like that, anyway."

"It's just, the distance she's keeping. Ten ten probably isn't a close range fighter, you know? And the shuriken she just threw. Also, her sensei just said her aim is perfect, and I think he's talking about weapons. I don't see any, but she's got to have something..."

"You think too much."

Fumiko opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Kankuro, who smiled. "You know, you can always count on Temari to put on a good show. "

"No big deal," Gaara said.

"Gaara." Fumiko whined. "Stop that."

"What are you talking about? The match just started!" the blond boy yelled. After a pause and a muttered something by the ponytail boy, he yelled, "What makes you so smart, anyway? Why don't you explain it to me so I understand?"

Fumiko didn't hear the rest of what was said.

Ten ten took off running, not at super ninja high speed but at an ordinary run, like Fumiko might have been able to do had she had both her feet. As it was, she could never have pulled off the zag Ten ten turned. Fumiko saw that she was running in a circle around Temari- but why? She stopped suddenly and jumped, spinning in midair.

"All right- try this on for size!" she said.

Then she spun, almost like sideways somersaults in the air, and the scroll she'd pulled out of her pocket unraveled around her like a dancer's ribbon. She straightened, and turned in faster and faster circles, the paper whipping around her just as quickly. It was almost like a wall now- Fumiko couldn't see Ten ten anymore.

Suddenly, there were weapons slinging out of the whirling tornado, a storm almost, heading straight for Temari. Fumiko got it now- a summoning scroll, like the Heaven and Earth scrolls that had summoned the man after the second exam. As expected, Temari flickered just slightly, too quick for Fumiko's sight, and the weapons scattered onto the floor.

"Huh," Kankuro said blandly. "So you were right."

"No way!" Ten ten exclaimed, frustrated, when she landed. "She stopped everything I threw! What is in that fan of hers?"

Temari's giant fan was out now, held casually at her side. It was partially opened so that one of her famous stars was visible. "Ha he he. Take a look!" she said. "This is the first star. There are two more. When you see all three stars, you'll know you lost the match."

Ten ten's face was hard.

"Ten ten!" the green boy yelled. "Do not play your opponent's game! Maintain focus! Maintain focus!"

Ten ten knelt a little, bracing herself just slightly, reaching. Then, after just a moment's pause, she whipped out a set of scrolls with one hand, staring hard at Temari, who seemed entirely unconcerned with the possible weapons. She just waited, prepared to block any attacks with her fan.

"What's with the two scrolls?" the blond boy asked.

Ten ten crouched and touched both of the scrolls to the floor. They stood on their own, one on each side of her. Temari threw her head back slightly. "Ha! That won't work, whatever it is." Her grin was totally confident, a little smug as well, as if she'd already won. Which, granted, she very well might have. But.

Ten ten's hands touched in a series of rapid seals that ended with her crossing her arms in front of her neck. "Rising twin dragons!"

There was a touch of blue, then an instant explosion of smoke. The cloud completely covered both Temari and Ten ten. Fumiko started with a startled gasp, leaning over the rail to squint through the haze. The smoke stung her eyes a little, but she definitely saw it when the two twin dragons burst free of the white smoke, flying up high and curling together.

The smoke burst free and the dragons were proven to be, in actuality, the set of scrolls. Now they were twisting together high into the air, again like a dancer's ribbon, leaving plenty of space in the center- like a tube, almost. Fumiko gaped up at them in amazement.

Ten ten leaped, shooting through the 'tube' of scrolls, and almost instantly her hand were filling up with weapons. She spun, rapidly launching tools that varied from kunai to small axes. She threw them with perfect aim, so that they shot through the rapidly appearing and vanishing open spots between the scrolls. Whenever she launched one, another seemed to appear in her grip instantly, so that her hands were never empty. Of course, all of the weapons appeared to miss.

"It doesn't matter how many you throw at me," Temari said, hefting her giant fan with one hand. Fumiko tensed- she was going to attack. Temari shifted the fan to be in front of her. The fan clicked open further. "It's all the same. Star number two!"

She thrust her fan forward, spinning with the momentum and kneeling down on one knee. An almost visible extreme rush of wind pushed all of the weapons back and to the ground. The onslaught of weapons stopped, and the dragon scrolls drifted to the ground. Ten ten came down hard, but landed nimbly on both feet. "I'm not done yet!"

She jumped up, far over the observation platforms, sailing over Temari's head. Her arms crossed again. The weapons, to Fumiko's complete shock, all rose by the hilts until it looked like a reverse knife storm. Ten ten pulled her arms up, and the weapons shot higher. Fumiko squinted and leaned forward, trying hard to see what was happening, but all she could see was floating ninja weapons.

Could she have been wrong? Perhaps this Ten ten girl really did have some ability; maybe this was a chakra string manipulation or something similar. Fumiko was rarely wrong about things like this, but there had been a few instances in which she had been. Even if she could count the number of times she'd been mistaken on one hand, this could be another.

"Fumiko," Gaara said. "There are strings."

"There- what?"

"Look," he said, tilting his head towards the space in between Ten ten and the weapons. "There's a shimmer."

"A shimmer?"

Ten ten grunted and flung her hands down at Temari, who stood still and lax below. The weapons jerked, then rushed down like they'd been shot from cannons. Oe grazed by a few feet away from Fumiko herself- some kind of double-edged hammer with sharpened edges. Now Fumiko saw it- just for a second as the weapon passed her, the fluorescent lighting reflected on a string like a spider's web.

"Oh!"

Temari's fan clicked again audibly. The blades all flew back up at Ten ten, who screamed and put her arms up to block. She was thrown back violently and then fell, slamming hard onto the ground. She skidded on her back. Temari stood with her fan behind her back, one hand holding the handle and the other gripping the top. All three stars were now visible.

Ten ten sat back up, face tensed into an angry frown.

"Star number three."

Ten ten stood. Temari's fan danced briefly, almost slowly, in a half circle above her head, and Temari was gone.

"Huh? Where'd she go? She- she's gone!"

"Over here!" Temari's voice sang. She was riding her fan above the stands, a move she'd practiced over and over in Suna before they'd arrived for the Chuunin exams just for this very purpose. She glided over Ten ten, who glared up at her with a careful, tensed stance. Temari landed just in front of her, and the fan closed briefly before fully opening again. "Now it's my turn."

Her arm came up slowly, and for a second of silence, the fan hovered above her shoulder. Then Temari attacked, sweeping her fan. "Wind-style jutsu!"

A gale so violent it appeared to the human eye stirred and whipped like a live, angry thing, drowning out all sound and even pushing Fumiko a little bit. Her prosthetic scraped against metal as she slid back half a foot. Gaara's hand caught her wrist discreetly, not that anyone was looking at the moment. He didn't move at all, having anticipated the attack and holding his feet down with sand.

Ten ten was caught in the center of the vortex, suspended in air. She barely moved, but the small jerks of her body betrayed the extreme pressure of the winds pressing around her on all directions, crushing her. Her mouth was open in a silent scream blown away before anyone could hear. Fumiko couldn't see, but she knew small cuts and tears were opening up on her body.

As she fell, Temari closed her fan and propped it up with one hand, leaning it out from her body just slightly.

The center of Ten ten's back cracked painfully against the blunt top of the closed fan, just as Temari had intended. Her body gave way and bowed, almost bending in half the wrong way. The breath rushed out of her, and Ten ten was knocked unconscious.

"Wasn't much of a match," Temari said, studying Ten ten's still form, still bent around her fan. Fumiko's lips pursed. "Kinda boring."

"Wow, looks like we're guaranteed a clean sweep in this round," Kankuro observed. Gaara said nothing, and released Fumiko's wrist.

After a moment, when it was clear that Ten ten wasn't going to wake up or move, the proctor stepped forward. "The winner of this match: Temari."

Fumiko, because she was looking hard at the scene to gauge whether or not Ten ten was even alive anymore- the blood suggested internal bleeding, and for a second Fumiko was worried Ten ten's spine was broken- she saw the smile slide across Temari's face. The same one she had seen on Yoroi, and the same one Gaara showed when shukaku was in control and he smelled blood.

Fumiko's eyes widened. "Tema-"

"Wait a second!" the boy in green yelled and jumped over the bar.

"-ri, no-!" Fumiko continued uselessly, too slow to stop anything, because Temari had already jerked her fan forward and Ten ten's body was already flying toward the weapons scattered on the floor. The boy in green was faster even than pretty boy Sasuke had been, there one second and gone the next. Fumiko realized the speed... and the muscles... the way he held himself, the bandages... this boy must have been a Taijutsu specialist.

Seconds before Ten ten would have hit the ground- and the many blades fallen on it- and seconds after Fumiko had yelled, the boy skidded to a stop just behind her. Ten ten's body hit him with a dull and audible thud and the impact knocked him back a few feet, but he held on. He ended up on one knee, holding Ten ten bridal style and wincing up at Temari, teeth bared.

"Hey," Temari said. Her face was dark, her grin manic. Fumiko realized with horror that Temari was wearing the same expression Gaara sometimes did- but the difference was that Temari was in her right mind. "Nice catch."

"What is wrong with you?" the boy in green raged. He set Temari's body on the ground, still cradling her head, and raised a fist at Temari. "She may have lost, but that is no way to treat an opponent who's done her best!"

Temari lifted her fan and slammed it on the ground. Fumiko flinched. "Beat it." she spat. "And take that sack of garbage with you."

"Temari, stop it!" Fumiko yelled down, just as Neji suddenly said "No, Lee!"

Lee was on his feet, then off them as he spun a vicious kick Temari's way. "Leaf hurricane-!"

No! Fumiko thought.

His foot slammed into Temari's fan, who looked satisfied and eager for a fight. "Not even close. You know what? You're as dumb as you look."

Fumiko was horrified. She made to rush down the stairs, but Kankuro stopped her before she could take two steps, flinging out an arm that slammed into Fumiko's chest. She gasped a little and reeled back. Kankuro flinched when Gaara turned his angry eyes on him, but kept his arm out.

"What did you say?" the green-clad ninja yelled.

"No, Fumiko. Don't."

"Lee, stop!" The other green-clad ninja, who Fumiko had earlier guessed to be Lee's sensei, jumped the bar in a style similar to Lee's. Because, Fumiko had learned, Lee was his name.

"But, Gai-sensei!"

"Gaara, Kankuro, do something!" Fumiko said desperately, anxiously rubbing her walnut charm.

"Temari!" Gaara said. His voice was the same level, rocky voice it always was, yet this time it echoed through the arena. "Forget them. The match is over, so get up here. You won. Why are you wasting your time picking fights with this kid and his ridiculous mentor?"

"Gaara!"

"What?" Lee said in a dangerous voice. He locked eyes with Gaara, a feat in itself, and for just a second, Fumiko had the horrifying gut feeling that Gaara was going to try something. She put a hand on his shoulder, and to her surprise, the gesture was mirrored as Gai put a hand on Lee's.

"Gaara, calm down." she whispered just as Gai said, "Just calm down, Lee."

Lee didn't back down, and Gaara's eyes were trained on Lee's face. Fumiko's finger tightened. "Stop!"

"A word of warning," Gai said, smirking now. He almost seemed amused by Lee's actions. "You sand villagers don't have any idea what Lee is capable of. Remember, he still hasn't fought yet. So I'd be careful if I was you."

Gaara's eyes narrowed.

Fumiko jerked sharply on Gaara's shoulder just in a certain way, enough to make his head shift just slightly. Kankuro cursed softly when she did it, but it was enough to break his eye contact with the boy Lee. His eyes refocused, and the moment of anger passed.

Temari made her way back up, and sauntered to her spot beside Kankuro. She looked smug. The two from the other team took the unconscious kunoichi to the infirmary, and pretty soon the monitor was out and spinning again. But Fumiko ignored that completely and leaned over the rail to look at Temari.

"Temari, what the sugar?"

"What do you mean?" she said coyly.

"What's wrong with you? You could have killed her! It's not necessary to call people names, intentionally try to break people's spines, and then intentionally try and impale them when they're unconscious! I mean, sugar, Tema-"

"You worry too much."

"I-"

"I didn't kill her. Calm down."

There was excited yelling from both Lee and the blond boy, but Fumiko tuned it out until it was little more than white noise.

"Sugar. Just... sugar. That was not sweet at all, Temari."

Fumiko felt prickling at the backs of her eyes. She was frustrated and a little bit horrified that she might have lost potential friends so quickly, and that her friend- well, a companion she knew next to nothing about, but Fumiko had called her a friend anyway- could do something so bitter. Gaara made a small humming noise that Fumiko knew meant he wanted her to not cry, but she couldn't help it.

The monitor dinged, but she didn't look at it. Instead she just looked away from Temari, staring down at her feet- foot- and bit her lip.

There was a brief moment of silence filled with the shuffling of whoever was going down the steps next.

Kankuro stiffened suddenly, and his feet turned in Temari's direction. Fumiko picked up on the immediate, tense whispering between the two.

"Stop pissing him off-"

"She's such a crybaby-"

"He's gonna kill you-"

"I don't understand why-"

"Me neither, but-"

Gaara's arm brushed against Fumiko's. She looked up at him, and instead of being discreet and looking at the unraveling fight beneath them, he was actually looking at her. She smiled at him, but hated the feeling of wet in her eyes. It didn't happen often. He just waited a second, holding her gaze, and then looked back down at the match. He stayed close enough that their arms remained touching.

Fumiko blinked until she was no longer in danger of crying, then looked down on the fight.

The one with the ponytail- Shikamaru, she realized once she focused a little bit on the names on the screen- was crouched slightly with one shoulder dropped. She saw the bells in the wall and realized they were attached to thin senbon needles.

"Let me guess," Shikamaru said. "Next you'll throw senbon with bells and senbon without bells at the same time. I'll react to the bells, and while I'm focused on dodging them, I won't notice the silent needs coming at me. Am I right? Heh. Good luck."

Smart. That was Fumiko's first thought. Her second thought was, overconfident. Everyone in this competition was overconfident save for Ten ten, but that didn't count because as a long distance weapons fighter, she had already been a disadvantage and it hadn't mattered. Also Gaara, who wasn't really overconfident, just accepting of the fact he couldn't be struck.

The other, Kin, rushed at him, flinging her arm out. Fumiko assumed she was throwing senbon. "You sure talk a lot, don't you?"

Shikamaru bobbed and weaved sharply to dodge. "Now I know to be careful and dodge all the senbon. Not just the ones with the bells."

The girl's raised arm reminded Fumiko of something. Her smile was overconfident like Shikamaru's, which meant... what did it mean? Fumiko racked her brain. It was like Kin was holding an invisible...

The bells behind Shikamaru rang, and his head whipped around to see how senbon were behind him.

"Fumiko," Gaara said. "There are strings."

"There- what?"

"Look," he said, tilting his head towards the space in between Ten ten and the weapons. "There's a shimmer."

"A shimmer?"

She tilted her head to get it in just the right light, and saw at the same time as Shikamaru the string attached to the bells.

"Threads? Oh no-"

He tried to turn his head, but Kin was already throwing. "Too late!"

"Augh!" Shikamaru grunted as the force of the needles slammed him backward into the wall. His teammates cried out in surprise. The blond boy said something a little bit rude, but didn't see Shikamaru reaching with one hand to pull them out. Fumiko winced at the sight of the three inch long needles sticking out of his upper arm.

"One inch higher," Shikamaru said shakily, grasping the ends of the senbon, "and that would have been a fatal hit." He yanked them out, barely flinching, and glared at Kin. "Okay, now I get a turn!"

"Sorry," Kin said. "That was your turn."

The bells rang again as the strings pulled taut.

Now, Fumiko didn't like eavesdropping. So more often than not, she didn't hear what was being said around her. But in place of perfect sight, she had a pretty decent sense of hearing, even better than Kankuro and Gaara's. She was listening carefully to the fights, especially with this one, because Kin had a Sound headband on, and Fumiko was trying to keep up with the fight. All of a sudden, in a terrible second, listening to those bells, Fumiko felt sick to her stomach.

She slumped against the bar, gripping it with her arms as her knees wobbled out of commission. Gaara started beside her.

"Fumiko? Are you alright?"

"You see," Fumiko heard Kin say through her nausea, "You don't ever ask for whom the bell tolls, because it tolls for thee."

Fumiko forced herself to look down, even though focusing her attention on the bells made her stomach roil. Shikamaru, too, was faltering, but he was on his hands and knees.

"This bell sends off a peculiar sound vibration that travels through the outer and inner ear, and directly to the brain. First comes paralysis, and then soon you'll start hallucinating." she said this almost in a light tone, as if it was humorous, which Fumiko knew it was very much not. 

The bells rang again, and Shikamaru slammed his hands over his ears. Fumiko assumed it was worse for him, since it was right there next to his head, and the arena must have been bouncing it back to him. Kin must have been using some Sound village trick to keep from getting paralyzed and sick herself.

"It won't work," Kin said. "You can't block the sound out once it's inside your head. It's useless."

Shikamaru muttered something that under normal circumstances, Fumiko might have heard. But this was a stupid time to try and focus her ears at all- she was trying to un-hear the sweeting bell- and she missed it.

"You can't move your arms and legs. And even if you could, you wouldn't know which one of us to throw your shadow at. Face it, you're cooked, little man." She raised her fist, which was stuffed with senbon. "I'm gonna cook you nice and slow over a hot fire."

"Wh-what? Which one?" Fumiko muttered. By now Gaara knew what was wrong with her. Fumiko wondered why it wasn't bothering him, or anyone else for that matter. She was the only one acting sick that she could see, although in the back of her mind, she registered a distinct whining noise. Kin raised her arm.

"You think it's that easy, huh?" Shikamaru said.

Kin threw the senbon, and Shikamaru swallowed a pained cry when he was impaled again. "This time it was three, next time I'll throw five. Each time a couple more 'till you end up looking like a hedgehog."

Fumiko's head was too scrambled to really process what the girl was saying.

"Stop playing games, why don't ya?" Shikamaru said. "If you're so tough get it over with. Stop wasting my time."

"I'm sorry, so you're not a fan of my slow and painful method, huh?" She smirked. "Fine, suit yourself, we'll do it the quick way, then." She raised more senbon in one fist. "And painful."

Then suddenly she froze. "I- I can't move my arm!"

Shikamaru staggered to his feet. "Looks like my lame shadow jutsu was a success after all."

"But-! You haven't thrown any shadows! No way, I made sure of it!"

"Heh. You really still don't see it?"

"What do you mean?" the girl exclaimed. But her arm had been frozen in place, and the bells had stopped ringing. Fumiko gasped breath into her lungs and managed to find her footing again. She rubbed her ears with one hand, because the bells seemed to still be echoing a little in her head.

"Look at that thread you're holding. Wouldn't you think it was a little strange that they even cast a shadow at that height? Of course you didn't notice it, because you were focusing on other things- like killing me."

The shadow grew around Kin like a puddle. "The shadow- spreading all around me- and I didn't see it coming!"

"Right. I stretched my shadow out along the length of that thread, and all the way back. Now I'm attached to you." he said, pointing at Kin. She pointed back.

"And now? So we mirror each others movements, so what?" Kin still managed to smirk. "Cute trick, but what do you gain by it?"

"Man, you're annoying." he sighed. "Shut up and watch."

He reached down and popped open the lid of the pouch on his hip. True to Kin's word, she mirrored him exactly.

"You must be crazy!" she exclaimed. "If you throw that shuriken at me, you'll just be attacking yourself!"

Fumiko was starting to regain her thought processes again. The shadow-whatever it was was controlling Kin, and it was Shikamaru's jutsu. It made her mirror whatever Shikamaru did, effectively trapping her, however, making it next to impossible to attack her. So by attempting to throw a shuriken at a senbon-based fighter...

He pulled his arm back like he was going to throw a Frisbee. Kin copied the movement. "Makes it kind of interesting, doesn't it?"

Was he insane? But- he had to be planning something. While overconfident had been Fumiko's second thought, smart had been her first. He couldn't just be playing Russian roulette, right?

"You wouldn't," Kin said. Her face was slack with shock. "You couldn't!"

"Yeah? Like a game of chicken, let's see who ducks first!"

He threw the shuriken, and in turn Kin's arm blurred as well. "You're crazy!"

Shikamaru bent backward to dodge the flying senbon, like he was playing limbo. Kin did as well. It was then that Fumiko saw the logic in his plan: Shikamaru was standing close to the center of the arena, so ducking backwards wasn't a problem. Kin, however, was standing directly in front of a wall.

Her head clunked hard into the stone.

Shikamaru touched his hands to the ground. Behind his back, Kin slumped and hit the ground. "And that's what I call using your head."

Fumiko burst into a fit of semi-quiet giggles. Shikamaru pushed up with his hands, doing a flip to land on his feet. "The wise shinobi carefully scouts the physical layout of the battlefield. And never loses sight of his position on it. That was her problem. I made sure she was so busy focusing on me, she didn't notice the wall inches behind her head. So when we both dodged backwards, Kabong! Now who's hearing bells?"

"Winner of the sixth match: Shikamaru Nara."

"Atta boy, Shikamaru!" the now awake Ino cried.

"Yeah!" the chubby boy yelled.

There was more excited mumbling as Kin was carried off to the infirmary and Shikamaru made his way back up the stairs. He took his time, pulling senbon out of his arms along the way.

"Are you all right?" Gaara asked her quietly. Fumiko nodded.

"Yeah. Just those bells."

"Moving on to the seventh match," the proctor announced. The monitor glowed. Looking around, Fumiko noticed that the only other people recovering from the bells seemed to be the boy in a fur coat, the dog in that fur coat, and the jonin with white hair, although the latter's was more subtle than the other two's loud grumbling and whining.

Finally, after a few long seconds, the monitor chose the next two combatants: Uzumaki Naruto, and Inuzuka Kiba.

"YEAH!" the blond boy yelled. "Yeah, it's here at last, the moment I've been waiting for! Finally, I get a chance to show what I've got!"

So one of them was the blond boy.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Fumiko said. "That's fun to say. Inukuza Kiba... I'll just call him Kiba."

"Look at that, it's us against the kid!" the boy with the dog exclaimed happily. "Hey Akamaru, I think you and I just won the lottery."

The little dog barked. Lee looked distressed. He was moaning something, but Fumiko couldn't quite make it out over Naruto's yelling, and besides, she was trying harder now not to listen particularly hard for anything at the moment. Just in case.

"It's my time to shine!"

"Now, the seventh match." the proctor said. "Uzumaki Naruto, and Inuzuka Kiba."

The two made it down the arena, with the blond haired boy bounding wildly down the steps three at a time and almost falling off, and the other calmly stepping down and using the handrail. Once they had met in the center of the arena, the proctor went up to them.

"I've been waiting forever for this!" the blond haired boy yelled in excitement, fisting his hands. "Listen Kiba, don't take it personally if I blow you away."

Kiba reacted a little too much, face angry, finger pointing accusingly at Uzumaki Naruto. "That's just what I was gonna say, only less quietly!"

Fumiko grinned. "Ah, so the blond boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto! And the other ones are Kiba, and the dog is Akamaru."

"Oh yeah? Well talking's easy! Let's see what you've got to say at the end of the match!"

"Little squirt!"

Kiba knelt and gently placed Akamaru on his feet. Or, paws.

"Wait a second are you kidding me, what's the puppy doing in here?" Uzumaki Naruto said in less than a second. "He's just going to get in the way!"

"Deal with it!" Kiba shot back. "I never go into battle without Akamaru!" The dog barked in consent. Fumiko almost went awww, but recovered at the last second and just watched with a smile, one hand holding her chin propped up against the bar. An adorable dog, and a devoted owner! She wanted to see what the pair was made of.

"Come on, isn't that against the rules or something?" Uzumaki Naruto whined.

"No," the proctor said. "Like Shino's bugs- they are a part of him. He is within the rules."

"Uh..." Uzumaki Naruto stuttered while he thought of something to say to that. "Whatever. Fine with me, I do my best work with a handy cat."

"Ha!" The laugh ripped out of Kiba's throat suddenly, and it almost sounded like it hurt. Fumiko could guess that whatever Akamaru was to Kiba, Kiba did not like having him compared to a cat. "We'll just see about that." Kiba stood. "Akamaru, you stay right here and leave all this to me. I've got it."

Akamaru actually looked up at him and growled in consent.

"Go on Naruto!" Sakura yelled. "You can't lose to this jerk!"

"Look, I feel sorry for you." Kiba said. His face, although still decorated with the hint of a smirk, was serious. The red marks on his face, Fumiko noticed, almost looked like a dog's canines. The furry hoodie he had on confused her a little, though. Was he very cold? "So I'm gonna finish you off with one shot, 'kay?"

Uzumaki Naruto just smiled. His face was set. "Heh. Is that right? Man, you're even dumber than you look if you think you can beat me."

"You sure talk tough for such a little squirt!" Kiba spat. Akamaru barked.

'When you're ready," the proctor announced, "you can begin."

The words had barely left the proctor's mouth when Kina knelt to one knee. His grin was wild like the forest, and he put his hands together in a jutsu symbol; Fumiko didn't know which one. The air around him flickered with blue like fire, although Fumiko didn't think that's what this boy was going to use at all. Kiba put both hands on the ground, arms tense, legs tense, like he was going to pounce.

"Here I come," he said.

And he was gone. Fumiko didn't even realize he had moved until suddenly, he was in front of Uzumaki Naruto with an elbow in his opponent's stomach. Uzumaki Naruto gasped and was thrown back. He didn't skid when he landed, just hit hard. He didn't move.

Kiba stood with a satisfied grunt. "This little guy's gonna be out for a while," he said to the proctor. "You can call the match."

"What was that?" Kankuro snickered with disbelief. "I blinked and it was over. That kid is pitiful."

"Kankuro," Fumiko said. "What- did he really hit him just now? He moved so fast. Aw, poor Uzumaki Naruto..."

Kiba scoffed and just turned around to head back to the stairs even though the proctor hadn't yet called the match. Fumiko wanted to believe Uzumaki Naruto wasn't unconscious already, but he gave no signs of being awake. It didn't make sense- he'd survived the forest of death, hadn't he? So how in the world had he been knocked flat with one hit?

Kiba didn't make it three steps before Uzumaki Naruto heaved himself back to his feet. He whipped around, disbelief lighting up his scowl. "What? There's no way!"

They all said that, Fumiko observed. Uzumaki Naruto straightened and heaved out a sigh. All she could see was his blond hair, because he wasn't lifting up his head yet. He was still recovering and, probably, bracing himself. He breathed heavily for a moment. Kiba, for whatever reason, looked angry enough to spit flames.

Naruto murmured something quietly. Fumiko leaned forward in anticipation, and Uzumaki Naruto's head jerked up. "Don't ever underestimate me!"

There was blood on his lips and he was crouched slightly, but that didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Yeah!" Lee yelled.

"Atta boy, Naruto!" Sakura cheered.

"Yeah, yeah," Kiba said irritably. "More tough talk. Look at yourself in a mirror- you're a mess!"

"Ha! I just wanted to see what you've got." Uzumaki Naruto scoffed confidently. His grin was wide, similar to Fumiko's. "Frankly, you hit like an old lady! You'd have a better chance of winning this if you sent that puppy in to fight for you!"

Kiba's face darkened. "You're gonna regret that. Come on, Akamaru!"

Akamaru barked twice, and the two of them darted forwards toward Uzumaki Naruto, who just blinked in surprise. Kiba reached into his pack for something, but aside from the fact that they were purple, Fumiko couldn't tell quite what they were. Her answer came soon enough when Uzumaki Naruto blurted, "Smoke grenades?"

"Take this!"

He threw them forward, and the air around Uzumaki Naruto flooded with purple smoke. Uzumaki Naruto cried out and covered his eyes with one arm, and soon Fumiko couldn't see him or his outline, just the purple cloud. Kiba vanished into it, but Akamaru just stayed behind and crouched next to the smoke.

"I can't see anything." Fumiko said. "I-"

Uzumaki Naruto burst clear of the smoke, and it curled off his body like it was trying to pull him back in. Instantly Akamaru leaped, barking like a mad dog, and smacked into Uzumaki Naruto's face. With a cry he fell back, and both the boy and the dog poofed back into the smoke. Startled outbursts and exclamations filled the observation platforms.

"What the..." Ino breathed.

"Darn," Shikamaru said. "The best part, and I can't see anything."

Kiba jumped back out of the smoke, landing neatly in front of it just as the purple mist dissipated. When it did, Fumiko started. Uzumaki Naruto lay immobile on the ground, Akamaru beside him, wagging his tail in satisfaction. He barked.

"Yeah!" Kiba shouted brashly. "This fight is over!"

Akamaru stood and bounded toward his owner, tail wagging excitedly. Kiba held out his arms. "Good doggie! Way to g-" Kiba stuttered to a stop, staring briefly at the dog before it jumped and sank its teeth into Kiba's arm. Kiba's face went slack in shock.

"Huh?" Fumiko exclaimed.

Akamaru was worrying Kiba's arm, although it didn't seem to be doing much damage due to Kiba's thick coat. Kina just crouched there, staring at his dog, who was trying his hardest to bite through the fabric. His voice was shaken. "Hey! Akamaru, what are you doing?"

It would have been comical, had it not been so surprising. The tiny dog was probably barely bigger than a cat, yet here he was gnawing away at his master's arm, who was too surprised to even react besides just staring.

"What are you doing?" he repeated.

"Surprise!" a voice said, laughing. "Gotcha!"

There was another poof of smoke, this time white, and Akamaru turned into Uzumaki Naruto. Fumiko laughed little bit, because Uzumaki Naruto was still biting Kiba's arm.

"You used a transformation jutsu!" Kiba blurted. He tried to stand, but Uzumaki Naruto wouldn't let go. "You little-! Get off! Let go of me!"

Kiba thrashed his arm around, and eventually Uzumaki Naruto's teeth were dislodged and he staggered back. Uzumaki Naruto spat. "Augh, you smell even worse than the dog!"

"Where is he?" Kiba's voice was panicked, and he looked around the stadium wildly. "What'd you do with him?"

"He's right here," Uzumaki Naruto stated proudly, holding Akamaru out by his forelegs. The puppy whined softly, putting his head down like he was ashamed. Fumiko covered her mouth with her fingers.

"How did you-" Kiba's face hardened. "Okay."

"He's got his jutsu down, there's no doubt about it." Temari said. Her words were approving, but her tone was still sarcastic.

"What do you mean?" Fumiko asked curiously, looking sideways past Kankuro. Although her tone toward Temari was still a little wobbly, Fumiko wasn't really upset anymore. She probably hadn't meant anything by her previous fight, anyway.

"I mean he used a transformation jutsu and a clone jutsu at the same time."

"Well, well," Kankuro said. "Kid's better than I thought."

"That was amazing, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed.

Uzumaki Naruto grinned. "He he."

Kiba smirked as well. 'Well, whaddaya know," he said. "Gotten a little stronger, I see."

The longer this fight wore on, the more rough Kiba's voice seemed to get. At first, it was just deep, but as the battle progressed and Uzumaki Naruto didn't lose, Kiba was getting more and more irritated. It had gotten to the point now where it was scratchy like a branch on grass.

Kiba thrust a hand out. "But not nearly strong enough! Now I'm gettin' serious!"

"Oh?" Uzumaki Naruto said. His eyebrow was raised skeptically. "Well good. I was hoping you would, 'cause I want to seriously knock you out!" He clenched his fist and smirked confidently.

"I don't know what happened, but this ain't the same Naruto we used to know." Shikamaru sighed. Ino made a noise in agreement.

Kiba took a deep breath, then exhaled, probably to calm himself. Uzumaku Naruto was still holding the dog in a way that Fumiko didn't think was good for dogs. His clone had stood and joined him, so now there were two Uzumaki Naruto's, Kiba, and Akamaru.

"Naruto," Kiba said, hand in the pouch on his hip. "If I were you, I'd let Akamaru go."

His thumb flicked something forward. Uzumaki Naruto blinked. "Huh?"

Whatever Kiba threw, Akamaru swallowed it with a bark.

All of a sudden he was growling, and his fur was turning an unusual shade of red. Uzumaki Naruto watched in shock as Akamaru's fur grew, his high-pitched bark deepening into a low growl. When whatever transformation that was taking place had completed, Akamaru kicked back in a way that Fumiko knew wasn't right for a dog's anatomy. Uzumaki Naruto was knocked back, and in his surprise, he released Akamaru, who landed on all four paws.

"What the heck happened?" Uzumaki Naruto asked. "What was that thing you fed him?" How come all his fur just turned red?"

"Are you sure you want to stick around to find out?"

Kiba raised a hand to his mouth and swallowed something, probably the same kind of thing that Kiba had thrown to Akamaru. She wondered if he was going to turn red and growl like a feral animal, and from his sudden almost-twitchy wide grin, Fumiko realized that his already sharp teeth had grown in size.

"Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba cried, crouching. Akamaru jumped onto Kiba's back and barked. Kiba threw his hands together into a jutsu symbol, face contorted wildly, almost savagely. "Beast mimicry!"

There was a poof of blue light and white smoke similar to Uzumaki Naruto's, and when it cleared, another Kiba was standing on Kiba's back. Granted, this Kiba looked more feral than the original, but it was a perfect duplication. When they spoke, it was with two identical low, rough voices. "Beast human clones!"

"Whoa!" Fumiko exclaimed, gripping the bar. "That jutsu is incredible!"

"He's got a crazy look in his eye all of a sudden," Uzumaki Naruto said nervously, backing up a step. Then suddenly he yelled, "Hey wait a second, he took something! That's not fair, you oughta be disqualified!"

"Food pills." the proctor said. "They're just another tool. They're allowed." He coughed. Naruto pointed an accusing finger his way.

"Gaah, you're no help at all!"

"Hey Gaara, what was that stuff?" Fumiko asked. Whatever it was, it was an extremely small, convenient food, if it gave him this much power. But it also seemed to alter his reactions to things, and some of his personality, to be angrier and more violent.

"Food pills." he said shortly. "They increase energy and chakra."

"Oh."

"Let's finish this," the original Kiba snarled. "Now!" They jumped like frogs, fingers curled into claws as they shot towards Uzumaki Naruto on either side of him. Uzumaki Naruto gasped and didn't manage to take a step back in time as they closed in. "On all fours: jutsu!"

Uzumaki Naruto bent backwards just in time, doing a backwards handspring and coming up again with a jump. His movement was fluid, but when he came back up, his eyes were shocked like he hadn't known if he'd be able to dodge that so easily. Dried blood still tracked down the side of his mouth.

When the dust cleared, the real Kiba dashed forward at a new speed and a battle cry, taking a shot at Uzumaki Naruto and missing by a hair when he dodged. Kiba just kept on racing, and for a moment Fumiko thought he was going to slam head-on into the wall, but he jumped like a rabbit and darted up the wall and across it. He skidded and vaulted off the wall, throwing another devastating punch and again, just barely missing.

Sakura gasped. "Naruto!"

"He's so fast," Fumiko marveled.

Kiba yelled out and came up again, swiping at Uzumaki Naruto's face. Uzumaki Naruto jerked forward so that it missed him, then pulled back again to avoid the next punch. Fumiko didn't know how he stayed away- Kiba was so quick!

Akamaru lunged forward when the real Kiba was thrown off-balance by his punch, and Uzumaki Naruto barely escaped it. Fumiko realized that he didn't have any time at all to attack, only evade. And with the strength Kiba had gotten from the food pills- Uzumaki Naruto would tire out first for sure.

Kiba swung down and Uzumaki Naruto jumped over his attack. Both Kibas regrouped and charged again, panting like they were starving dogs going after a wounded animal. Both lashed out, and Uzumaki Naruto jumped again, higher this time to avoid both attacks. The real Kiba skidded and turned back around with a snarling grin. "Now I got you!"

He raced toward Uzumaki Naruto's rapidly falling form, and jumped up at the last second. He only left the floor by a few feet. "Man beast: ultimate taijutsu!"

Kiba spun and blurred until he was a whirling, almost solid-looking torpedo. Akamaru came up behind him, twin gray missiles heading straight for Uzumaki Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto's face twisted in frustration, almost fear as he looked over his shoulder at them and realizing he couldn't dodge.

"Fang over fang!"

They both hit him dead-on, and he screamed as he was drilled forward. Both Kibas slowed and slid onto the ground in identical crouches. Uzumaki Naruto fell hard, and Fumiko winced when he hit the ground headfirst. His neck bent sharply, and then he fell onto his stomach with a dull thump. For a second, he gasped, and Fumiko saw blood streaming down his face, and then his face hit the ground. He was still.

Fumiko sucked in a breath and hoped his neck hadn't just broken. It seemed impossible for these ninja around her to die of broken necks somehow, but still. Red pooled out from under his shock of blond hair. Fumiko's fingers tightened on the rail even more.

"Ohmysugar," she breathed. "Please tell me he didn't just die."

The real Kiba stood. "I told you it was gonna get serious."

Uzumaki Naruto tried to move, fingers curling on the floor.

"Guh... I will..."

The voice was still grating and still rough and still loud, but it was almost too quiet at the same time. Fumiko assumed that was because his face was in the floor, he'd just probably injured his neck, and he was all beaten up, but still, it almost made her uncomfortable. She'd grown accustomed to this boy being loud, not just noticeable.

"A-ah... I will be... Hokage. I will!"

It sounded like he was coughing blood, or at least had some in his throat. Fumiko shivered a little, chewing on her lip. Blood wasn't exactly her favorite thing, but it was when you couldn't see it that it was the most dangerous. Internal bleeding, injuries, even if it coated the throat- that could be a problem later.

"Hokage?" she said, remembering the old man who had told them about the Chuunin exams. It sounded similar to a kazekage, so perhaps a Hokage was the same this as a Kazekage, only in Konoha instead of Suna. It was an educated guess, and Fumiko thought she was correct, but why in the world would Uzumaki Naruto bring that up now of all times?

"Yeah?" Kiba sneered. "And how ya gonna do that? By lying flat on your face?" He chuckled to himself. His mood seemed to have increased a lot, but because that was due to a person lying bloody beneath him, Fumiko wasn't so sure she preferred it. "Well, I got news for ya. I'm gonna be Hokage!"

He was laughing like a hyena now, watching Uzumaki Naruto.

"Gaara, is Uzumaki Naruto moving?" Fumiko asked worriedly. She could see the prone body, but she always seemed to miss the littler things. Fumiko didn't know whether to hope he was or not- the kid was so beat up he was collapsed on the floor, and now he was being tormented, for crying out loud.

"Yes," Gaara said quietly. "He's trying to push himself up. I don't think he can."

"Come on," Kiba said. His voice was still a little high from laughter. "Do you really believe a little weakling like you can be Hokage?" He scoffed, turning his head and putting a hand on his hip for a second before whipping his eyes to glare at Uzumaki Naruto, flinging out his arm. "You must be weak in the head!"

A moment passed, during which Kiba just laughed to himself. It wasn't a nice laugh either, or even one that makes the laughing person feel better. It was just a laugh that showed everyone he won, was just a laugh that said he was unsure if he would have. Abrasive, loud, snarky, and shaky. However, his face cleared and screwed up instantly, as Uzumaki Naruto slowly, slowly pushed himself up on his elbows.

Then he pushed up to his knees. Fumiko tried to suck on sugar, but it fell from her slightly shaky hand before she could get it in her mouth.

"On your feet, Naruto!" Sakura cried. Her eyes were sharp.

Uzumaki Naruto swayed slightly as he wobbled to his feet. Slowly, shakily, he straightened. Fumiko could almost feel the vague surprise from Gaara beside her, and from a few of the other Genin around her. If she was honest with herself, Fumiko's own surprise was a little bit warm in her belly. She wanted Uzumaki Naruto to win because he was trying so hard just to stand, to face his opponent even if the odds were impossible.

"Sorry, but," Uzumaki Naruto said- quietly. "you can forget about being Hokage."

Kiba's face tightened. Uzumaki Naruto raised his head, and Fumiko, although a little unnerved by the blood on his face- down his mouth, on his forehead, by his eyes- smiled when she saw the determined (and slightly cocky) grin on Uzumaki Naruto's face. "Because I'm the top dog around here."

"Heh." Kiba raised a damning finger at Uzumaki Naruto. His face harbored a cornered smirk- he knew he was in danger, but still was certain his opponent was weak. "You're kidding. You're a real glutton for punishment, aren't ya?"

Uzumaki Naruto didn't answer, just smirked. "Hmph."

"Okay," Kiba said. it's your funeral. I'm gonna make sure you don't get up again!"

Fumiko wasn't expecting it, so for a second she lost sight of Kiba and Akamaru as they darted forward. She blinked, though, and saw them again, halfway to Uzumaki Naruto and moving fast. From their backs and the brief second of not being able to see them, she couldn't tell which was which.

"How many times are you gonna use that move?" Uzumaki Naruto scoffed, still grinning.

"Just once more!" a Kiba snarled, raising a clawed hand. They both spun again, like tornadoes, twisting a straight path straight for the blond Genin. Uzumaki Naruto jumped like a frog into the air, like he wanted to avoid them, but that didn't make any sense. As Fumiko expected them to, the tornadoes swirled straight up, battering Uzumaki Naruto around until he fell and slammed back into the arena floor.

Both Kibas skidded to a stop, then lurched forward again. Fumiko had time to draw breath, and then one of them was throwing more purple smoke bombs. They exploded and, once again, Uzumaki Naruto was shrouded with a bang and a rush of coloured smoke.

The tornadoes rushed in for the kill, so that all Fumiko registered was gray blurs, purple smoke, and a snarled cry of "Fang over fang!"

"Oh, no," she said. "Not again!"

The Kibas skidded out as the smoke cleared. Uzumaki Naruto was still standing, but looked even more beat up than before. He wiped blood from his chin.

"Huh! Looks like you've run out of gas, kid." a Kiba scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Bring it on, Dog-breath, because no matter how many clones of yourself you'll make, I'll still have enough gas to beat you!"

His poise was confident, but there were two Kibas and one battered him. Fumiko had no doubt he'd try his best. but could he really win? She hoped so. The odds were stacked against him, but then again, odds were nothing when it came to these shinobi.

"Ha! You always have a snappy comeback. Let's see you come back from this! Ready, Akamaru?"

Akamaru growled in a way that almost sounded like an affirmative, and again, they rushed forward; again smoke bombs flashed and exploded into a purple shield. Again, they leaped like twin storms and spun into the cloud. Fumiko wondered how long Uzumaki Naruto could take the constant bombardment. Had it been Fumiko, she probably would have been unconscious already, even if she tried her hardest. Although, she might have been able to take the wild boy out with a Genjutsu first...

"Here we go!" a Kiba yelled as they went in for the final strike. Before they could make it, though, before they'd even said it actually, Fumiko had heard something else. Fainter, yes, but still- she'd very clearly heard somebody cry, Transform!

The attacks halted.

For a moment, there was silence as the smoke cleared away. Fumiko strained to see, but beyond the color purple there was nothing. Temari's smirk stretched a little bit in amused surprise, and once again, Gaara had been caught of guard. What was Fumiko missing? Transform...

A transformation jutsu, perhaps?

Sure enough, when the smoke finally dispersed, there were three figures left standing, and all three of them were exactly identical- surprised faces and all. Three Kibas- one Akamaru, one Uzumaki Naruto, and one actual Kiba. Fumiko couldn't tell which was which, and apparently, neither could they. Fumiko heard Sakura's surprised exclamations, but kept her eyes on the competitors.

"Okay," Kiba said shakily. "So I see you've gotten better at the transformation jutsu. But you forgot one little thing- I admit, you look just like me, and that threw me for a minute... But I still know which one is you."

A bluff? Maybe, but from the way he was raising his fist, Fumiko didn't think it was.

"You can't hide from me! You wanna know why?"

His fist planted solidly in a Kiba's face, and that Kiba flew backwards with the sheer force of it. He rolled limply, almost like a doll. Fumiko started- how did he know which one he was attacking? He seemed so sure of himself, too.

"I can smell ya, kid." he said quietly, rubbing his nose. He was grinning darkly. "There's just no getting past our sense of smell. Tough luck. Haha, game's over."

The Kiba lying immobile on the ground poofed audibly, transforming again. However, when the smoke cleared, it wasn't Uzumaki Naruto lying unconscious on the floor- it was Akamaru! Fumiko sucked in a surprise breath so quickly she almost choked on it. So Kiba had been wrong? But the Kiba behind him looked just as surprised as the Kiba who had punched Akamaru.

Fumiko's head hurt. She just wanted them all to go back to themselves.

"So it's you-!" Kiba roared, whipping around and slamming a fist into the other Kiba's face. That Kiba flew back as well, hitting the ground hard. "Messing with me!"

With a poof of smoke mingled with the rising dust from his skid, Akamaru slid to a stop. The dog was unconscious, and looked just as beat up as the clone body he had been using had been. Fumiko squinted, trying to make sense of the whole thing- which was which? Who was who? Kiba's face was wiped clean from shock.

Behind him, the other Akamaru stood. With a puff of smoke, Uzumaki Naruto was running straight for Kiba, who just barely had time to look behind him to see what the noise was before Naruto leaped up and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying back and landing beside the real, unconscious Akakmaru.

"Atta boy!" Sakura yelled.

Kiba sat up quickly but shakily, stunned. He wiped the blood from his mouth. His eyes went straight to Akamaru, who laid unconscious just beside him. Kiba's trembling hand hovered over him for just a moment, like he was waiting for him to get up or was afraid of touching him or both. Growling, he locked his glare on Uzumaki Naruto, who stood where he had landed.

"Little squirt," Kiba hissed.

"The smart shinobi is careful how he uses his jutsu." Uzumaki Naruto said. His voice was back to normal, rough and loud. "Otherwise it's liable to come back and bite him on the butt." He pointed his thumb down. "Dummy!"

Kiba looked outraged, or at least, that's what Fumiko saw in the lines of his scowl. She couldn't make out what was in his eyes. He bit his hand in the way a person might pinch themselves. Although he bled a little, he appeared to calm himself down just enough to keep a clear head. Eventually, he stood, taking his hand down from his mouth. He reached both hands into his pouches for two handfuls of shuriken.

Uzumaki Naruto smirked again. "So, are you finally getting serious, Kiba? Good." His hands flashed into a jutsu symbol. "That means it's time to unveil something special I've been saving. My super-secret killer move!"

"Your what?" Kiba said skeptically. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Huh?" Sakura said. "Where'd he come up with that?"

"You can leave it to Naruto to have a trick up his sleeve! Well done!" Lee said approvingly.

"A secret move?" Fumiko said. "He would have used it by now, wouldn't he?"

"Ha!" Kiba spat. "'Super secret killing move'. Get out of here! That's a bluff!"

"Oh, yeah?" Uzumaki Naruto taunted. "Well, try me and find out!"

It was a bluff. It had to be. Uzumaki Naruto had almost lost this match multiple times, and had trouble with the smoke attacks. He would have used it already, had he had a secret winning ace up his sleeve. But Fumiko wasn't going to say any more on the topic, just in case she was wrong, and just in case she was right. She didn't want to accidentally prove anything- it could have been a fighting tactic, bluffing like that.

"You ready?" Uzumaki Naruto said, thrusting his hands forward.

Quick as a flash, Kiba lurched forward, throwing his shuriken with deadly accuracy. Uzumaki Naruto yelped and leaned sideways to avoid them, barely escaping the flying blades by inches. He jumped up to avoid the next launch, and dove back down to dodge the third. He narrowly, somehow, escaped being hit by more attacks. All the while, though, Kiba was advancing.

"Beast mimicry: all forest jutsu!"

Kiba dropped to all fours like a bear, lumbering forward at speeds Fumiko hoped bears couldn't move. Uzumaki Naruto had a second to widen his eyes before he was punched solidly in the gut. Unlike the first time, however, Uzumaki Naruto just grunted and managed to stay standing, only pushing back a few feet. Kiba rushed up beside him, voice hard and taunting.

"Well, whaddaya waiting for?" he said. Uzumaki Naruto probably hadn't even processed the taunt before Kiba punched him in the face, snapping his head back and sending him airborne a few feet. He hit the ground and rolled all the way to the other end of the arena, slamming into the wall.

"No- Naruto!" Sakura cried.

Uzumaki Naruto was sprawled out on the cracked floor, unmoving.

"Hmph. I knew this kid couldn't hack it."

Fumiko turned at Kankuro's voice. "What, you think he's unconscious?"

"On your feet, Naruto!" Sakura yelled again. Fumiko nodded when he stumbled back up, standing. Honestly, Fumiko didn't know how he was still standing, but endurance seemed to be a specialty of a ninja. Fumiko herself, aside from mild bullying back at Suna, didn't really get hit enough to build up endurance. Gaara wasn't really a harsh teacher.

"He's coming at me so fast, I haven't got a chance to build up my chakra!" Uzumaki Naruto said, but he was still smiling like he was about to laugh. Adrenaline, or exhilaration maybe, was fueling him. Kiba lunged and blurred again. She didn't see him clearly, but she heard his voice.

"Hey, what's wrong? You just gonna stand there?"

The blur darted right, left, around Uzumaki Naruto, so fast Fumiko was left staring at the wrong place when Uzumaki Naruto went flying again. He hit the back of his head first, and skidded to a stop. By the time her eyes diverted back to him, Kiba was gone again. Kankuro hmph'd and when Fumiko moved her eyes to match his, she realized Kiba was in the air.

"Take this!"

He came down on Uzumaki Naruto, and more than the blur she saw the blood.

Uzumaki Naruto ignored the pain of his arms and grabbed Kiba's hands. He was smiling again. "No- take this!"

With that last word, Uzumaki Naruto stood, grunting, and launched Kiba over his head. Kiba, for once, went flying through the air. Fumiko stared at the blond ninja- he was a lot stronger than he looked at first glance. Kiba was much bigger than he was. Kiba skidded to a stop on his hands and feet like a cat landing on it's feet.

Blood trailed down Uzumaki Naruto's arm. He breathed heavily, still standing, and Fumiko imagined more than heard the sound of the blood dripping onto the arena floor. Beside her, Gaara stiffened. When she looked at him in alarm, his eyes were narrowed and he was staring at the spot.

"Gaara, ssh, hey. Ignore it."

"I will be Hokage!" Uzumaki Naruto repeated. His hands came up to form a jutsu. "I will never lose to you, or anyone here!"

"Dream on, kid- How can you beat me if you can't keep up with me?"

He ran like a hyped up bear again, but he didn't blur, and Fumiko tracked him the entire time he spent running at Uzumaki Naruto, jumping, and coming down with claws extended. There was a ripping sound of tearing cloth, and Uzumaki Naruto shifted sideways out of the way, gripping his shoulder. He jumped forward a little, landing with his knees crouched tiredly.

He panted, but got no time for regrouping. Immediately Kiba whirled around, running towards him. "Hey, kid!" he snarled with a wild grin, claws extended. "Heads up!"

There was a loud cracking sound, and Uzumaki Naruto's head was wrenched back and he flew back. He landed face first on the stone. Fumiko leaned over the bar slightly, mouth open in surprise, to try and see him better. Kiba stood, panting.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed.

"Heh!" Kiba panted. "You wanted me to get serious, so I got serious. You get it yet? You were just kidding yourself. You never even had a chance- wh-wha..?"

Uzumaki Naruto was standing again.

It was like he couldn't stay down. No matter how many times he was smashed into the ground, he couldn't lose. He didn't know how to. He was breathing even harder now, and he was slower in getting up, and every one of his limbs shook as he did so, but he was getting up. Fumiko's teeth clicked together when she saw the angry splatter of red beneath him.

"I absolutely... will not... lose." he said forcefully. His back was still to Kiba, but he turned around with a look of intense determination on his face, and- somehow- he still looked smug. Kiba twitched. "Guess that means you're out of luck."

"Come on... I don't care who it is, I just wish someone would win this match already," Kankuro whined. Gaara didn't answer, and neither did Temari, and surprisingly, neither did Fumiko. She was enraptured by the look on Uzumaki Naruto's face- a pure look of- of something- something huge that she didn't understand yet. Something about the fighting.

"Hey, what are you waiting for- you tired?"

Kiba growled. "You're a scrappy little squirt, I'll give you that," Kiba said, voice rougher than Uzumaki Naruto's.

"That's enough of this," Uzumaki Naruto said. His fingers came together again. "It's time to unveil my new technique!"

"Go for it!"

Kiba blurred. Fumiko used that time to rub her eyes, which were starting to feel a little strained from all of her squinting. When she looked again, Kiba was behind Uzumaki Naruto, and his "Too late!" was still ringing in her ears. She'd missed it completely, but she'd known she was going to, which was why she'd rubbed her eyes.

The honest truth: she understood what happened next.

Another honest truth: she kind of wished she hadn't.

Fumiko barely heard it, and almost thought she had imagined it for a second. But then, Kiba lurched backwards with a cry, clawing at his face.

She hadn't missed what Kiba had revealed before, when Uzumaki Naruto had turned into Kiba's double. Somehow, his sense of smell was extreme, more so than a human's. Just from what she had seen, Fumiko figured he was more like a dog than a human, especially with the way he fought. But the problem was, while his sense of smell was sensitive to, say, an enemy...

It was also sensitive to a close-range fart.

Kiba spasmed and jerked, shaking his head from side to side like he wanted to fling even the memory of the smell from his mind. He was coughing and gasping and clutching his nose. "Uck- oh- Nasty! Ugh!"

"Wh... whatever works, Naruto!" Sakura cheered uncertainly. "You slowed him down, at least!"

"Heh..." Uzumaki Naruto coughed. "I wish I could say I planned it, but anyway, the time has come to unleash my new technique!"

He brought his hands together in a jutsu symbol for the third time. Fumiko was starting to think that maybe there was a jutsu, and that Uzumaki Naruto just hadn't had any time to unleash it. Her new theory was proven correct when he said, "Shadow clone jutsu!"

Right away, he split into three, and then five. The shadow clones dashed forward in a way that reminded Fumiko of Kiba's own strategy- only with five look-alike's rather than two.

"You've kicked me around pretty good so far," the Uzumaki Narutos yelled. "Now it's payback time!"

They circled him. By the time Kiba recovered enough to lower his hand from his nose, he was completely surrounded. He looked around wildly, growling slightly in response. "Well?"

Kiba was looking the wrong way when one of them leaped forward. Kiba's head whipped around in shock just in time to snap back as Uzumaki Naruto's fist smashed into his face. It was solid, definitely not a clone.

But then, as Kiba flew backwards, two of the other clones behind him ganged together and slammed their feet upwards, kicking Kiba squarely- and somehow, solidly- in the back. Kiba soared upwards in a straight line, and when Fumiko's head snapped upward to watch, she registered a blur of orange and grey before Kiba was sent slamming back into the ground.

"Uzumaki barrage!"

Kiba's face crunched into the ground audibly with a sound like a cracking egg. It sent shivers up Fumiko's spine.

"Oh my sugar... oh my sugar..." Fumiko breathed, startled. "Oh sugar, is he okay?"

Kiba didn't move and Gaara didn't answer her. Uzumaki Naruto stumbled a little on his feet, breathing hard, and when Kiba didn't twitch or try to get back up, one by one his clones vanished with pops and clouds of smoke. There was a moment of stunned silence.

The proctor stepped up slowly, then knelt. He tried to move Kiba, but when the proctor moved his head, Kiba gasped a little in pain, although he was unconscious. Fumiko's eyes were wide- was the battle over? A complete three hundred and sixty degree turn, and suddenly it was over?

The proctor stood again. He opened his mouth to speak, but was hit with a sudden fit of coughing. When it subsided, he wiped his mouth and started over. "The winner is Uzumaki Naruto."

"Woo-hooo!" Lee yelled, fist raised.

"Yes, Naruto! That's my teammate!" Sakura's face was proud and it showed through her voice. She was grinning so big it looked like it hurt- although Fumiko knew from experience that it only started hurting after a couple of minutes. "Way to go!"

"Unbelievable!" Shikamaru exclaimed. "Who would have thought he could beat Kiba?"

Uzumaki Naruto stared at his hand for a minute, like somehow it was responsible and he was surprised. He fisted his hand and stared at that, too, but Fumiko couldn't see his face.

Eventually, the medics came for Kiba and took him away on the stretcher. Uzumaki Naruto came bounding up the stairs excitedly, taking the steps two at a time. He hadn't even made it all the way to the top before he was yelling.

"Ha ha ha ha, it was nothing!" he exclaimed gleefully. "Piece of cake! Ha ha!"

He jumped up and down, almost skipping, fists raised in the air and grinning. He bounded onto the platform, then strutted across it like a preening peacock. Hinata called out to him weakly, and he paused. While they exchanged words, Fumiko looked to Gaara.

"That was... intense." she said. "And, uh... violent. I still don't get fighting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved this episode! I died with laughter when Neji thought, 'He's certainly an interesting one. It's not every day you see a shinobi who would bite his opponent.' That's basically Uzumaki Naruto in a nutshell, Neji! The fights were so long, though... by the time I finished, my final story word count was about 12,800! Which is... a lot! I wasn't entirely happy with some of the stuff I wrote, but I'm about done with this chapter, so, moving on!


	15. Gaara's Pain

Fumiko didn't mean to listen in to their conversation.

Kiba and Akamaru had not been completely removed. Kiba, although incapacitated, was fully conscious. Akamaru, however, was not. The small, blue-haired girl they called Hinata had ducked away and down the stairs to speak to him, and Fumiko had only paid attention because she wanted to make certain Kiba was alright.

Instead, she ended up overhearing Kiba's concerns for Hinata, rather than the other way around.

"Listen to me. Be smart." Kiba warned. "If they put you in with that guy from the Sand village, you've got to forfeit the match. Same with Neji. Be smart, and just walk away. Trust me- they'll be merciless."

That was almost possibly just a little bit painful to hear. But it also reminded Fumiko that, oh sugar, Kiba was right. There weren't all that many Genin left, and soon Gaara was bound to be picked. He was doing better, of course... but the second somebody bled-...

What if he did get put in with the frail girl? She didn't seem the type to give in. Even as she walked back up the stairs, and Kiba was carried from the arena, her face was small. Not in size, but in fear. She wouldn't be afraid if she was going to back out, which might not be the best thing ever in her case. Or anyone else- who was left? Neji, Lee, Hinata, the one Kiba had called Choji, and Dosu, the sound villager.

She didn't know their abilities. She didn't know how strong they were. But she did know that, despite their best efforts, there was no way Fumiko could conceive of that would allow them to win against Gaara. Some tiny part of her hoped that whoever went up against Gaara took Kiba's advice. If he lost it, then the night would be spent not sleeping until the red faded from her eyelids and stopping Gaara from experimentally trying to stab himself- a disturbing habit he'd taken up a while ago when he was feeling like a demon.

He was okay-ish right now, and unflinchingly Fumiko knew that was because he was directly beside her and losing it would be bad, bad news for the cripple who couldn't sprint to save her life. Literally. But in the arena, far away from important things and within the rules of death, things could get bitter. Fast.

..

Gaara hoped against hope that he didn't get picked next, but his own thoughts were drowned. Fumiko was directly beside him, which was good; he coud almost feel her warmth. The sensation was enough- almost- to keep him from lashing out before he was supposed to. The shukaku wasn't all that pleased about it, but Gaara was fluctuating between control and moments of blankness in which he was momentarily overwhelmed.

When? When?

It was just as pounding if not more so than before, because now the damned raccoon was getting impatient. There was blood all over the place in this arena- whose bright idea was it anyway to hold all of the preliminaries in one day? Gaara needed time to relax, to meditate, to rest a little. Not be on edge and staring at the stubborn little stain that never scrubbed completely clean, from the Uzumaki kid's cut.

Just be quiet.

Stop SAYING that!

Gaara blinked slowly to assist his throbbing headache.

...

"All right. We'll now pick the names for the next match." the proctor announced once everybody was settled again and Uzumaki Naruto had run to the bathroom and back.

Every ninja's head snapped to attention, except for Gaara, who hadn't really looked away. This included the ninja who had already fought, which confused Fumiko a little, but maybe they were just concerned for a friend who hadn't fought yet. The monitor dinged and Fumiko snapped out of her thoughts to read the names.

She'd figured the two with pale eyes were related, and this was proven correct. The names on the panel read: Hyuga Hinata and Hyuga Neji.

So, Hinata was fighting next after all! But Fumiko, of course, had to be a little worried. To Kiba, Neji was just as bad as Gaara, and that led her to believe that either Neji was obscenely strong, or perhaps the two had bad blood. Or both. There were a lot of boths when it came to ninjas.

For the first time in quite a while, there weren't any startled gasps. Hinata and Neji made their way down on opposite stairs, and met at the middle with the proctor between them. The proctor, Fumiko was beginning to notice, looked a little dreamy, like he was so tired it was making him impassive. That happened to Fumiko and Gaara sometimes, although when she noticed herself getting snappish Fumiko immediately went right to sleep.

"I never thought that you and I would have to face each other." Neji had an almost boyish look to him, like he hadn't quite grown out of being a child. Which was why she was a little startled to discover that his voice was actually quite low. "Hinata."

"Nor I, brother." Hinata said sadly. Her tone was reigned, but she couldn't meet his eyes, instead looking at the floor. Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed loudly, confused and a little shocked, but was quelled by his sensei. The two weren't direct siblings, she learned. But they were distant cousins, same blood of different branches. However, this wasn't exactly a family so much as a fued.

Fumiko felt no pity, but she did feel a little sad. Family, fighting? Family, fighting without caring because of a grudge? Fumiko had experience with that, and knew that it was stressful to all parties involved.

"All right." the telltale quiet voice of the proctor announced. "You may begin when ready."

"Before we do this, a word of advice." Neji said blandly. She figured it was more for show than from Neji actually caring a whole lot... although there had to be something. No one person was so cold. "Hinata, listen to me. Withdraw now. You know you were never meant to be a ninja."

These words seemed to have a huge effect on Hinata. Her eyes went wide, her posture rigid; she looked him straight in the eyes. Fumiko analyzed his words quizzically- how was any person meant or not meant for something?

"You're too kind and gentle. You seek harmony, and avoid conflict. You allow yourself to be easily swayed by others. Admit it," he said when Hinata looked away. "You have no confidence. You feel inferior to everyone else here. It would have been better for you to simply remain a Genin. But to register for the Chuunin exams, you need a team of three people. You never even wanted to take part in these exams, but Shino and Kiba did, and you couldn't bear to let your teammates down. Could you?"

He used no exclamation points in his little speech, but right at the end he gave her such a foul look one might have thought helping a friend was worse than telling somebody they weren't meant to be what they wanted to be.

"Hey, and what's so wrong about that, huh?" Fumiko exclaimed. Neji ignored her.

"No! You're wrong! You're wrong..." Hinata shook her head. She seemed to be convincing herself as well as her sibling. "I wanted- I had to find out. I did it because I wanted to see if I could change."

Her eyes trembled.

"Hinata, you are the pampered offspring of the Hyuga's main branch."

"Wh-wha?"

Fumiko shuffled a little bit in discomfort, and then winced. Her leg was sore from standing for so long, pressed up like it was against the metal. Usually she sat at regular intervals but, here she couldn't do that. To ease the weight she leaned on the rail for support.

"People can't change, no matter how hard they try. They can't run away from their true nature. A failure will always be a failure." He paused. "People are judged by their true nature. It is the way of the world. That is why we have an elite, and why there are outcasts. We can change our physical appearance, and prove our skills with training and study. But ultimately, we are judged by what we can not change. What can't be changed, must be endured. We are who we are, Hinata. And we must live with it."

Okay. Who was calling who pampered, exactly?

Hinata was becoming more and more distressed with every word Neji spoke. It only made Fumiko more defensive of the poor girl that they seemed to be hitting their mark- what right did anybody have to exploit a person's fears? None.

..

Fumiko wasn't seething, because she didn't really ever seethe or get mad, so far as Gaara knew. But she was definitely growing more frustrated than she usually did, and Gaara pushed shukaku's voice to the back of his head for a moment. What the Hyuga boy was saying probably should have been hitting some of Fumiko's sore spots, had she been at all self-conscious.

Even now he could see the way she was standing and was alarmed to realize that she'd been upright for almost an entire day.

Who cares? Kill her, or somebody NOW!

The shukaku interrupted his thoughts momentarily, but with an exasperated and pained whisper in his own mind he cut it off again.

Fumiko herself was the exact definition of Neji's thought processes. Unable to do the things she might have done, or wanted to do, because of an issue she couldn't fix. She was far too soft for fighting, and even if she'd wanted to, her disabilities prevented her from using even the most basic jutsus. Fumiko knew her limits, and didn't mind asking for help if she needed it.

His headache was pounding. Were these two going to fight?

..

"Just as I must live with the fact that you were born into the elite of our clan; while I am from a lesser branch. I understand these things, because I see the world clearly with my byakugan."

"I don't know what a byakugan is, but if it sees stuff like that then he needs to get a new one," Fumiko said in a low voice to keep from being heard by Neji. She was transfixed by his white eyes and the toneless way he lashed with words. They were delivered in an almost goading way, like he wasn't trying to make her quit, but make her doubt.

"Despite your brave words, what you're really thinking is that you'd like to run. Run as far away from here as you can."

"No, you're wrong. You're wrong about me!"

She was crying. Barely. But Neji's words had shaken her and shaken her bad.

Neji's hands came together in a jutsu. But was he done with words yet? No, Fumiko thought. He's not done by a long shot. Leave her alone, Neji, stop it. Fumiko knew what he would have said to her- the same as what he was saying to Hinata. However, Fumiko's response would be to shrug, nod, and continue what she was doing. Hinata, on the other hand, seemed to struggle with this.

Veins throbbed around Neji's eyes ad he cried, "Byakugan!"

Fumiko startled. His white eyes had become more defined- but she couldn't make out the great detail of it. Neji stared Hinata down, about as active in that second as a wall. Hinata tried to look at him, but to Fumiko's alarm, it seemed to cause her pain. Finally, after a few thunderously quiet seconds, Hinata looked away.

"Hmph. My eyes cannot be deceived." Neji said with finality. Hinata startled. "Just one moment ago, in the slightest of movements, your gaze drifted toward the upper left corner of the room. I saw, at that moment, you were thinking of your past. Your bitter past."

"Didn't he just call her pampered two seconds ago?" Fumiko demanded. Kankuro nudged her slightly to tell her to shut up, but Fumiko continued to think stubbornly inside her own head. To say something like that, and then use the word bitter? Had he even noticed his mistake?

"And then, almost immediately after, your gaze drifted to the lower right. It was a mere flicker of the eyes, but to me it revealed all of your mental and physical suffering. You're seeing your old self, and wondering if your life has prepared you for this moment. You're picturing the outcome of the battle. You see yourself losing."

Hinata jerked.

"And the way you're holding your arms in front of your body like that? It tells me that you're trying to build a wall between us. To keep me at bay. You want to keep me from raiding the deepest recesses of your mind, and why? Because everything I've said is true. Shall I go on?"

Hinata was trembling, even Fumiko could see it now.

"That familiar gesture- of putting your finger to your lips. I know it's a desperate attempt to suppress your rising panic, made all the more desperate, because you know it's futile. It's all futile, Hinata. You are what you are. Whether you admit it or not, you already know."

Fumiko gritted her teeth a little bit, and opened her mouth to protest, fully intending to scream, and how do you know who she is?! But somebody beat her to it.

Uzumaki Naruto yelled, "That does it!"

Neji looked at him passively over his shoulder without bothering to turn around. Hinata looked startled and relieved, looking up at him like she couldn't trust her ears to tell her what was true.

"Who gave you the right to tell her what she can or can't be?" he snarled. "Go on, Hinata, show this guy he's wrong!"

A brief pause. Fumiko nodded in approval. Uzumaki Naruto growled, like he couldn't contain his anger and was trying to explode. Fumiko wasn't angry, but she sure wasn't happy with the male Hyuga.

"Hinata! You just gonna stand there and take that? Do something, you're driving me crazy!"

The Hyugas looked away, Neji at Hinata, and Hinata at the ground. She was struggling with herself, Fumiko knew, and something not entirely unpleasant burned in Fumiko's stomach. It wasn't quite bitter, but it wasn't exactly sweet either- just a mild something that made her want to see this guy get off his high horse and admit Hinata was who she was, not what he said she was destined to be.

"If you don't forfeit the match, you know what will happen."

Hinata, to Fumiko's delight, didn't appear to care anymore. After just a moment's pause, she performed a rapid set of seals that ended exactly the way Neji's had, with the same words, as well. "Byakugan!" She spread her legs into a fighting position, and stretched her arms out defensively. "Defend yourself. My brother."

Neji too swept to prepare for battle. Their poses were identical. "Very well then."

There was a slight scuffing sound as they took off. The first hit wasn't a crushing one, and it was dealt by Hinata. Neji blocked it with ease. Her hands flashed again, again and again, and Neji jerked and ducked to avoid them, them launched his own attack. Hinata moved left, then right, and bet back like she was playing limbo to avoid the shot to her face.

The battle was happening so fast, but the punches weren't really punches. They seemed weaker somehow.

The threw and dodged, blocked and punched, trading blows with a ferocity that was unwavering and somehow seemed more intense than the more exciting fights. Back and forth it went, the most normal looking spar so far, only something about them seemed to be crackling.

Hinata landed a glancing hit to Neji's stomach, which made his jump back. The battle halted for just seconds.

This time, she listened to Neji's teammate Lee and their sensei Gai as they explained. Neji and Hinata stared off at each other, Neji's face cold and calculating, Hinata's determined and slightly adrenaline-powered. They circled each other warily.

All of a sudden someone found an opening- Fumiko wasn't sure which one- and they were fighting again, meeting blow for blow in the middle. Neji barely dodged an attack to his chest and, scowling, attacked full-force. She deflected, and they were both pushed back.

"Hinata! Way to go!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled excitedly.

She was listening to them explain about chakra networks and Byakugan when Hinata made a bold move, lurching forward with her hand extended to attack. There was a thud, and Fumiko sucked air like a gasping fish when she saw Hinata's body jerk out. Her friends cried out excitedly, but they didn't see- Hinata had been hit.

The gentle fist technique. Fumiko remembered just a little bit about it from Gaara's texts, but because it was basically a Konoha-specific move, there hadn't been more than a few sentences on the subject. Gai and Kakashi's brief explanation had jogged her memory.

Hinata gasped, and blood flecked from her mouth.

"So that's it, huh?" Neji said cruelly. "That's all there is to the main branch's power?"

"Wait- what is going on? I mean, I saw Hinata hit that guy perfectly!"

Fumiko had seen it too, which was why she had been expecting both of them to spit blood. But for whatever reason, only Hinata seemed affected- the battle had been moving too quickly. Fumiko had missed something.

Hinata tried again, smacking off Neji's hand from her chest and striking again. But Neji saw it, and grabbed her fist with one hand just before she would have hit him. With the other hand he jabbed into Hinata's arm with two fingers.

Deliberately, Neji pulled back Hinata's sleeve. Fumiko couldn't see it all that very well, but it almost looked like Hinata had chicken pox or something. Red dots were scattered on her skin. Fumiko recalled Neji's two-fingered assault and realized that's what it was from- but what was it for?

"But- you mean- all this time, you..."

"That's right. I could see your chakra points the whole time." Neji's face was curled into a sneer now, like somehow this made him right. But, Fumiko heard- chakra points. She didn't know much about the chakra system, because Gaara didn't understand it very well himself. Was that what those red dots were? Punctured chakra points?

She heard something of Kakashi's explanation- three hundred plus chakra points, size of the head of a pin, complete control over chakra flow- but she wasn't so interested anymore and was distracted when Neji thrust a hand forward, catching a frazzled Hinata solidly in the chest. She cried out and was launched backwards, hitting the ground hard.

Direct hit, straight to the heart.

Neji took a few steps forward but stopped before he came anywhere near the fallen girl. "Look, Hinata. I'm completely out of your league, and that won't change. This is what separates the elites from the failures."

Hinata was already trying to push herself back up. She was breathing hard.

"You may not like it, but it's a fact. From the instant you said you wouldn't run anymore, your fate was sealed. You were destined for failure. And now, you're consumed with hopelessness. Now this is your last warning, Hinata." He stepped closer. Hinata was on her hands and knees now. "Forfeit this match."

"I... I..." Hinata gasped. She trembled; her entire body trembled. She was barely supporting herself, and yet she was steadily pushing herself up. Well, maybe not steadily, but she still was managing. "I... I never... go back... on- my word!" She was standing, albeit a little crookedly. She was also smiling a little, and there were lines of blood draining down the sides of her face. "Because that too is my nindo... my ninja way."

Her byakugan restarted.

"Bring it on," Neji said, although by his tone he almost seemed... unnerved.

Beside her, Gaara's shoulder twitched. Whipping her head around, she realized he was shaking just slightly, eyes shivering. Again, his eyes were fixated almost in fear on the battle below him. When she nudged him, though, he didn't look away.

"Oh, sugar," she murmured. "Not- not now..."

"Go, Hinata! You can do it!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled loudly.

Hinata rushed forward. Neji blocked, hit, blocked, blocked, swung, but Hinata seemed quick on her feet despite the problems with her heart. She almost caught his head, his stomach, his neck. She was fighting bare now- no chakra to speak of. Fumiko suddenly realized that if Fumiko were to fight, she would fight like that. Only- slower.

Fumiko knew Gaara's limits almost better than her own. He wasn't responding, which was way farther into the checklist than she'd originally anticipated. The pain of the fights, both physical and emotional, must have been jump-starting the killing process. If she tried to push it, the shukaku would only ring louder as Gaara began to fear for her safety.

He had told her that once.

Hinata swept her foot to try to catch Neji's ankle, but he danced out of the way just in time. She leaped back up. Somehow, impossibly, she was still blocking every attack thrown at her with equal force, like she wasn't injured at all. Finally she yelled out, and threw a straight blow. Swiftly, Neji moved to the side, halted Hinata's arm with one hand, and slammed under her chin with the other.

A direct hit to the neck.

She didn't fall but she stumbled as she was pushed back. Hinata coughed loudly, unable to draw air.

What should Fumiko do? Gaara was either going to go next, or last. Waiting now could result in more than just his opponent being injured, but many. There was an almost nonexistent chance of another length of time giving Gaara the time to clear his head again- Fumiko didn't even really consider the idea. No, he'd reached the point of no return while Fumiko had been distracted.

Again. Hinata was becoming more desperate, and Fumiko knew how this would end. She rushed Neji, and Fumiko's eyes flinched away just before the impact, but she most definitely heard it. Her swirling thoughts stilled momentarily. Hinata's byakugan faded and she spat again. There was a thump, and when Fumiko brought her eyes back to the fight, she realized Hinata had fallen.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Neji asked patronizingly. He stood above her. "Your strikes were ineffective from the very start. You're finished."

With that, he turned away.

Moments passed. Fumiko was taken with thoughts of Gaara and Hinata and whether or not she was alive still, and why the medics hadn't come to get her already. Basically, she wasn't exactly thinking about baking for the injured anymore. Her mind was full.

The proctor stepped forward. "Since she is no longer able to continue this match-"

"NO!" Uzumaki Naruto bellowed. Fumiko jumped. "Don't stop this match!"

Oh, Uzumaki Naruto, stop. Let her be. If you push her to keep going she could be killed.

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. "What on earth are you doing? Hinata's had it! You can see she's unconscious, can't you?"

And because she said that, everyone looked instinctively to the mentioned Genin. Gaara jolted with a small inhalation of air, the closest thing to a gasp Fumiko had heard him come to in a while. Fumiko herself almost bit her tongue in surprise.

Hinata was getting up. Sort of.

She trembled violently. Her limbs shook until it looked like she was in the middle of an earthquake. Fumiko's heart went out to her- Neji was wrong on almost every count. Maybe he was out of her league. Maybe she was weak. But she was not destined to be so. She was not afraid of him.

But Fumiko wished Hinata would stop. She didn't want to watch this any more.

Hinata was standing now. She stumbled like she was tipsy, gripping her chest, shaking.

"What do you think you're doing?" Neji demanded. "If you continue to fight, you're going to die."

Hinata didn't back down. When Neji activated his byakugan- which Fumiko thought was cruelly unnecessary- she stumbled forward jerkily. She looked like a beginner's marionette. "I'm far- from finished!"

"Give up the tough guy act," Neji spat. "I can tell you're barely standing. You've been carrying a very heavy burden, having been born to the main branch of the Hyuga clan, and you've cursed and blamed yourself. For being weak. But look, people can't change the way they are. That's just how it is. Just accept defeat and you won't have to suffer anymore!"

Hiata shook her head weakly. "No. You're wrong. Or rather, you've got it backwards."

Neji started.

"You see," she said. "I can tell." Hinata was speaking in between huge gulps of air. All Neji had to do was wait, and she would eventually pass out. "that you're the one- you're suffering much more than I."

"I- what?"

"You're the one... who's all torn up. About the fate of the main and side branches of the Hyuga clan."

Something snapped. Neji's back was to Fumiko, but she noticed when his head jerked up angrily, and she definitely noticed when he ran at her full speed, arm drawn back, aiming- Fumiko almost screamed- to kill. There was no need. No need at all.

"No!" Fumiko yelled, along with some others.

A poof of smoke and a cut-off gasp of breath, and Neji was suddenly restrained on all sides. Gai had him from behind, Hinata's sensei by the arm, Kakashi by the other, and the proctor poking into his forehead. Behind them, Hinata just stood, completely drained and unable really to process what was happening.

"Neji!" Gai said sharply. "Get ahold of yourself. You promised me you wouldn't let this whole head family thing get you all riled up!"

"Why are you and the other jonin butting in?" Neji asked through gritted teeth. "The head family gets special treatment, huh?"

No, they were just trying to stop you from ruthlessly killing a young girl who couldn't defend herself, Fumiko thought. She was genuinely confused by this whole 'head family' thing. What did that have to do with anything?

Suddenly Hinata spasmed and fell to her knees, coughing and unable to breathe. Instantly, the black haired red-eyed jonin jumped up and ran to her side. "Hinata!"

Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura, and Lee jumped the railing, landing gracefully on their feet and running to their friend's aid. Including Lee, which Fumiko really liked- worried for the opponent of his teammate. She nodded. They could be good friends, her and Lee. Uzumaki Naruto as well.

They crowded around her side. "Hinata- are you okay?" Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed. "Hey!"

Hinata gasped. "Naruto...? I just... I..."

Fumiko couldn't hear her anymore. It was like a dying person's whisper, and even Uzumaki Naruto, who was right beside her, had to lean in to hear the rest of what was said. Hinata, however, passed out before she could finish. Her eyes drifted shut.

"Hey you." Neji said abrasively. "Loser."

Fumiko gawked at him openly. What the sugar? Really?

"I have two pieces of advice for you. First of all, if you intend to call yourself a shinobi, stop that stupid cheering of yours. It's disgraceful. And second: once a failure, always a failure. You can't change that."

Everyone stared at him, some disbelievingly, like Fumiko, some angrily, and some blankly- like Kankuro- because he sounded like a broken record now. Neji just stared hard at the orange ninja.

Uzumaki Naruto stood. "We'll just see about that!"

To Fumiko's surprise- although she should have seen it earlier, she was starting to realize that the ninja was both extremely loyal to his friends and extremely reckless- Uzumaki Naruto took off toward him like- like he was going to fight him. He didn't get far, though. There was a blur of green, and Lee blocked him from going any further.

"What are you doing?" Uzumaki Naruto demanded.

"Naruto, I get where you are coming from, believe me. But the rules say all fighting must be done officially and in a match." he paused. "The loser beating the gifted genius with sheer willpower- now would not that make for an exciting match? Even if I am the one that is going to fight Neji. Of course, if you ended up fighting him, that is fine too."

Uzumaki Naruto growled under his breath, but eventually calmed down. He threw his chin up and looked away. "Alright, fine. You win, Lee."

He walked away, and for whatever reason, Lee gave a thumbs-up. It must have been some kind of code for something, because right away Gai gave a thumbs-up back. Uzumaki Naruto walked back towards Hinata.

In her unconscious state, Hinata coughed blood again. Right away, what was probably her sensei quickly unzipped Hinata's jacket and put a hand on her shirt, placing another on her neck. For a moment, she was still. Her expression tightened, and she swung her glance at Neji.

His tone was smug and almost amused. "I wouldn't waste your time glaring at me, when you really should be taking care of her."

Her sensei twitched and the spell was broken. "Get a medic! And hurry up!"

"We're coming!" a man dressed in white said, followed by two others. They unrolled the stretcher and checked Hinata over. One of them did exactly what Hinata's sensei had done and put a hand to her neck, checking her heartbeat.

A gasp. "She has no pulse!"

Fumiko flinched. Uzumaki Naruto ran forward like he wanted to help, but only hovered over the shoulder of one of the medics. "It's very serious; she has ten minutes at best. Let's get her to the emergency room, now."

They rolled her gently onto the stretcher and took it amongst themselves, carrying her between them. "Stand back."

There wasn't even anybody in front of them, so they hurried out of the room. Uzumaki Naruto watched helplessly after her. Fumiko touched Gaara's shoulder for support, then remembered his own state. He stared with a quiet intensity, and Fumiko's eyes whipped back down to see the splatters of blood Hinata left behind.

Oh. Right.

Uzumaki Naruto crouched, swiping his fingers through the blood. Then he stood, each movement slow and deliberate, and turned to Neji, holding out his bloody fist. Neji seemed surprised by it. A few drops of red dripped off his fingers to the floor. "I vow to win!"

..

There was allowed a brief intermission while a few people came out to clean up the arena. They swept at the bloodstains.

"Gaara, look," Fumiko said. He wasn't looking at her, but he was listening, sort of, so maybe he would take her advice. "If you can't stop, then try to slow yourself down. Give the guy a chance to forfeit if he wants to- don't just kill him. Somebody could also step in, remember."

"Fumiko." Temari said sharply.

"I'm trying to help, Temari." Fumiko said back. "For the last time, I swear he isn't going to try and kill you just because I said something."

Temari hesitated. "You don't need to aggravate him."

"What's aggravating him? He can barely hear me as it is." Fumiko chewed her lip, glancing up Naruto, who had returned to his platform, only now he stood far away from the other ninja. She just had a bad feeling about this entire thing. "Temari, do you think that they'll do all of the fights today? I don't know if..."

"I think so."

They were startled briefly by a genin, Chouji, that started yelling at the top of his lungs about barbeque. She recovered quickly enough, and while Temari was glancing irritatedly at the boy, Fumiko sighed.

She looked at Gaara and realized with alarm that he was trembling. It was almost imperceptible, but that combined with his flared eyes was very, very bad news. It meant he was starting to blank out, and that the pain in his head was starting to be too much.

All she wanted was for somebody to call, hey, why don't we just pick this up again tomorrow? If that happened, Fumiko knew that he could maybe calm himself down a little. But there wasn't really a chance of that happening anymore. Fumiko didn't know what to do. She stared at the blank monitor that would decide someone's fate, chewing on her lip.

"I'm still curious about that Neji guy." Kankuro commented, sweeping his gaze over the people in the opposite viewing platform. "Yeah. That might work."

He stepped towards Temari and Baki, moving past them to the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Temari asked.

"Just doing some recon," Kankuro answered smoothly with a dismissive wave. "I'll be back."

...

This thing with Gaara was getting worse and worse. Kankuro had noticed that Fumiko usually seemed to have some sort of sway over it, but right now, it appeared that she couldn't do anything to help.

That was part of the reason why Kankuro had left. But he really was still curious about the one called Neji, and he figured the best person to talk to- although not ideal- would be the blond haired Genin. What was his name... Naruto?

"Hey you," Kankuro called as he mounted the stairs. Naruto looked over at him. "How come you're all by yourself? Why aren't you hanging with your buddies?"

"Huh? What's it to you?" Naruto said childishly, sticking his nose up in the air. Kankuro realized with some amusement that the kid was still hung up on the first time they had met. Kankuro slid his hands in his pockets.

Well, well. Touchy.

"So tell me something about this guy Neji," Kankuro said, looking out to the arena. The cleaning people were just now finishing up. "I get the feeling we didn't see the full extent of his powers in the last fight, did we? So what's his story?"

Naruto suddenly thrust his fist in the air and yelled, "I'm gonna pulverize him, that's his story!"

Kankuro stared at him, trying not to laugh. Just what the heck was wrong with this kid? "Okay. But that wasn't quite what I meant."

Naruto didn't respond, getting more and more worked up over the thought of fighting Neji. Considering the battle he'd fought, however, compared to Neji's, Kankuro was actually a little amazed that this kid was a ninja at all. This idiot was way out of his league. "You know," he said, smirking lazily and tilting his head. "You seem like a nice guy. I like you."

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't like you."

Kankuro's grin dropped. The two of them stared each other down, and Naruto seemed totally confident, which annoyed the crap out of Kankuro because he knew he could beat him to a pulp. This kid, he vowed, is toast.

The proctor coughed.

...

"Now then. We'll continue the competition."

"All right! This time you'll be picked, I just know it!" the larger green ninja exclaimed, but Fumiko didn't pay them any attention. She stared at the monitor.

That was it- two more battles. One would have Gaara in it. By now, she knew that Gaara would be fighting to kill, and she wasn't sure what to do. If he did lose it... if Gaara tried to end it... Maybe- just maybe- somebody would help, like they had with Hinata. That was Fumiko's hope- that somebody stepped in.

But what Fumiko didn't want was for Gaara to overwhelm the help.

The monitor glowed. Nervous eyes watched it's movement carefully. It hadn't even finished spinning when Gaara put his hand up in a basic jutsu symbol that she recognized and closed his eyes. Fumiko opened her mouth and made to touch his shoulder as sand swirled, but her hand fell through empty air. "Gaara!"

He reformed in the arena.

Gaara was impatient. No- the shukaku was impatient, and if Gaara had gone down there it was because he had noticed something in the screen- his eyes were faster than hers, maybe he'd caught a pattern or something. Immediately after he moved, the monitor dinged.

"YEEAAHH! Safe again!" Chouji yelled.

"Lee!" Sakura blurted.

Fumiko stared up at the monitor, and true enough it read: Gaara vs Rock Lee.

So it would be Lee that fought Gaara after all.

Lee and his sensei were yelling excitedly, chattering on and getting fired up for the battle. Lee was actually excited to fight Gaara- looking forward to it. He was already kicking and punching, warming up. No! Fumiko thought sadly. Don't be excited about this. Forfeit. Run. Do something.

Lee jumped the rail and landed in front of Gaara, not bothering to take the stairs or delay anything. He stood, and raised one hand up in a fighting stance. "I knew that sooner or later we would have to meet, and I am glad it is sooner."

Fumiko gripped the railing so hard her knuckles turned white, achy stump of a leg forgotten. There was blood in her mouth now. It wasn't often that Fumiko's thoughts were cloudy. She didn't usually have any bitter thoughts at all, actually. But usually she wasn't trapped watching her friend fight under the influence of his demon in an arena where he was only strongly discouraged from killing.

...

"I don't know what kind of moves the guy with the dumb haircut has got, but he'll never take Gaara down," Kankuro said, not so much confidently as honestly. He could see the look of distress on Fumiko's face from their platform. "Not in this lifetime."

"Wrong."

"What?" Kankuro said disbelievingly. It was almost a snicker. Was this kid crazy? Kankuro understood that nobody in here had as of yet seen Gaara fight, but if they couldn't sense the danger that shrouded him, then how were any of them ninja?

"Lee's stronger than you think. You have no idea."

...

Lee's hand snatched something out of the air, barely moving at all. Fumiko wished it wasn't what she thought it was, but she knew better than to hope for it. Gaara's sand was already beginning to hiss about.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Lee said. He dropped the cork, which hit the ground audibly, rolling. Gaara didn't answer, and the arena was a deadly quiet.

"Alright then. If you are both ready..."

Don't say it.

"Begin."

Lee sprinted forward and leaped, swinging his foot around. "Leaf hurricane!"

It smashed against sand and Lee dropped like a stone in his surprise. Looking up, he blanched at the rising wave of sand. Gaara stood completely still, arms crossed. If she hadn't known better, she might have thought he was one of her sculptures.

Lee jumped back as the sand crushed down on top of him, somersaulting backward in midair. He landed awkwardly and skidded, almost losing his balance, but caught himself. Gaara's sand drained back into his gourd slowly. He wasn't trying to kill just yet. Either Gaara was taking Fumiko's advice, or the shukaku was playing.

Lee darted forward again, leaping up and kicking. He was blocked, of course. He kicked again, again, then tried a hard punch that thumped audibly against the sand. Left punch, right punch. At the last second he whipped around, pulling a kunai from the pouch on his thigh just in time to slash through the oncoming sand. He cut through it once and again as it rushed for him, then tried another kick to Gaara's head.

The sand immediately rushed forward and blocked it.

Lee rolled out of the way as the wave tried to overcome him again, half barely getting away and half being pushed forward by sand. He stumbled to his feet and jumped high above the sand, throwing several shuriken that of course hit sand.

This ninja, Fumiko would admit, was fast.

..

"The sand!" Naruto exclaimed. "He's using it as a shield!"

"He's not doing it- the sand is protecting him of his own accord." Kankuro said.

"Huh?"

"It's almost like a living thing." Kankuro looked over at Naruto. "It'll come to Gaara's defense without him doing anything. That's why Gaara's never been injured. No one can get at him. No one's ever even been able to touch him."

With one exception, Kankuro thought, but it was more dramatic to say it his way. Besides, technically Fumiko had never tried to hurt Gaara, so his explanation was still accurate enough. Kankuro briefly thought back on how he'd grabbed Gaara's sash. That had been a really stupid idea.

Kankuro didn't quite understand why Gaara allowed Fumiko to be so near him. It was almost like she was a pet- she had no real use, and was, in fact, a burden sometimes- but he didn't think that was it. It was almost more like he cared. From the death glare Gaara had shot him when Temari made her start to cry, Kankuro surmised that whatever the reason, he would never, under any circumstances, raise a hand against that girl.

No matter how annoying she was sometimes.

..

"Well? Is that all?" Gaara said. "I hoped you haven't finished entertaining me."

It was mostly red now. He'd blanked before and it wasn't pleasant. Although he wasn't possessed, the pounding in his head had slammed Gaara right into the very back of his consciousness, and it was mostly the shukaku manning the stations now. He barely registered what was happening. He saw green, and red, and yellow sand.

Pain still throbbed in his skull to keep him down. Gaara cursed the demon in him as loud as he could when he was just thinking, but he didn't think it was really doing any damage at all. Gaara knew he'd messed up by denying the shukaku before- now it was trying to take control to get what it wanted, and that could get dangerous if Gaara couldn't get ahold of himself after the battle.

But he had to, somehow. He had to... what had Fumiko said again? Something about... going slow. Slowing himself down.

"Gaara, look, if you can't stop, then try to slow yourself down. Give the guy a chance to forfeit if he wants to- don't just kill him. Somebody could also step in, remember."

His vision was blurred.

"We haven't had enough... blood."

..

Sand rushed forward like ripples in a lake. Fumiko bit her lip savagely as it chased Lee, who jumped to avoid it, only now, Gaara had learned. The sand followed him up, catching his leg and whipping him around like a yo-yo, releasing him so that he flew across the arena and into the wall. Lee slid down and hit the ground, gasping, and pushed himself up with his arm.

His head snapped up and he rolled out of the way. Sand slammed into the wall where he'd just been sitting. Quick as lightening Lee was up and running forward, throwing a punch, and got actually pretty close to Gaara before the sand cut him off again. Lee kicked at him again, and again. Jumping into the air and spinning down onto sand.

The sand rushed at him like a tidal wave, and Lee barely flipped back in time. He was almost like a dancer, the way he flipped and jumped and dodged like a gymnast. He continued to spring backwards, trying to escape the deadly sand approaching. But it slipped underneath him when he landed, and Lee fell with a startled cry, hitting the ground hard.

He yelled as sand enveloped around him. Fumiko's eyes widened when she saw him break from the sand right at it's thinnest, just before it took him. A millisecond later and it would have been too late. Temari followed her gaze, and her eyes hardened in shock when she saw the spinning green ball high above. Gasps rang through the arena- some thought Lee had died and some had seen his impossible escape.

Fumiko didn't know whether to sigh in relief or wince, so she settled on squeezing the railing even harder. Fumiko's fingers hurt and her heart was beating a mile a minute, a feeling she wasn't very accustomed to and didn't like.

Lee landed neatly on top of the giant stone statue of hands forming a jutsu symbol; right on the fingertip. Fumiko knew what he must have been thinking- if he couldn't land a hit, how was he supposed to win? The answer was one that nobody liked.

"All right, Lee!" his sensei called. "Take 'em off."

Lee looked startled. "But, Gai-sensei," he said, saluting. "You said that was only as a last resort, when the lives of very important people were at stake!"

"What?" Fumiko wondered.

"That's right I did!" He gave Lee a thumbs up. "But this is an exception!"

Slowly Lee's hand came down. "R-really?" he said hopefully. "Really?" Lee's face broke out into a wide smile. Fumiko couldn't fathom why- what did he have that could help him against Gaara? He sat on the statue, happily pulling off his legwarmers. Fumiko knew this because they were bright orange, but...

"Temari, I don't get it," Fumiko said as way of question. "I can't see."

"There are training weights on his legs," she snorted. "Don't know what taking those off are gonna do for the kid."

Fumiko looked up again as Lee stood. His legwarmers were back in place, and now Fumiko could make out the gray rectangles he held in his hands. "Ah, that is better!" he said happily. "Now I will be able to move freely!"

Lee released them, and the weights dropped like stones to the ground. For a moment, Fumiko tried to recall how heavy ordinary weights would be- she didn't know; Gaara had never used them and neither had she- and how much taking them off would help. But her thoughts were blown away like paper in the desert when the arena thundered, shaking.

Fumiko slipped. Her knee hit the ground with a jarring thud and through the bars of the railing she stared at the cloud of dust. Had there been an explosion? Were they under attack? It wasn't a genjutsu, Fumiko would have known if it was. She realized it was the fallen weights hitting the ground that had done it. Had- had those weights really been on his legs?

"All right!" his sensei said like a game show announcer, pointing to the arena. "Now, go!"

"Yes, sir!" Lee yelled.

He jumped, and was gone.

Not a green blur. Not a disturbance in the air. Fumiko gaped and tried to pull herself back up, grasping at the railing and sliding her prosthetic back underneath her with a few jerking hops. Where- was he really so fast? Could Temari or Kankuro see him? Maybe she just couldn't detect him.

Before she could ask, Lee reformed just behind Gaara.

..

The shukaku was just as confused as Gaara was. Where had the green boy gone? He was there- and then- he just wasn't. Gaara's eyes screwed up just slightly and he whipped around when he felt a disturbance. The drumming pain in his head curled around but let him react- Gaara was the better fighter of the two inside him.

His eyes twisted even more along with the rest of his face- Lee's fist was right there! The sand had barely stopped it, pushing and pushing but still Lee's hand had broken through! Lee was gone again. Gaara didn't have time to think and then the air pushed against the back of his head. He turned but there was nothing. Sand poofed beside his head, and he looked there too, but the ninja had already moved.

He could hear the boy running; air whooshing like a kite. Blows almost landed all around him- a kick he didn't register, sand that actually pushed against his back. He stumbled forward, shocked. His eyes shot forward when he heard the battle cry and his eyes widened when the fist shot straight past his head, bandages scraping against his ear.

The sand had only managed to deflect it- not block it. But how? It wasn't possible!

Stay still! DIE!

Gaara's brain exploded with pain and he was tossed back into the recesses of his own mind as Lee circled him.

..

Fumiko couldn't see him, just the puffs of sand that couldn't quite stop his attacks. Her head whipped around until her neck got sore, but she couldn't keep up with his speed. Gaara couldn't either, trying desperately to catch sight of him, but whichever way he looked Lee was always just behind him, striking, striking, striking.

Fumiko was almost able to see Lee when he jumped into the air. Not very high, and it was only for a split second as he spun and came down hard.

Gaara's head was slammed downward violently with the force of Lee's kick. He stumbled back.

"Gaara!" Fumiko cried.

Her mind had blanked. How the- what the- it wasn't possible to hit Gaara; it just wasn't! It wasn't even possible for him to trip and fall because the sand caught him. So how could he be injured? And the force of that kick... there had been barely any sand there to try and stop it. Fumiko only registered shock.

Lee slid back, one arm on the ground to slow himself.

"Yes, Lee! Let the power of youth explode!"

"Right!" Lee yelled in triumph and excitement.

He zipped forward and was gone. Gaara whipped his arm out and sent sand rushing into place in front of him. Fumiko saw the streak of speed-dust Lee left in his wake, and tracked him directly into the outward explosion of sand aimed right at him. Gaara looked wilder, jerkier, a puppet unsure of his strings as he swept both arms to command his sand.

Green and sand- Lee was behind him. Gaara turned slightly, but of course his opponent was gone.

"Over here!" Sand burst and Gaara yanked around to find him. "No, here!"

Gaara suddenly grunted and was flying backwards, and it was only seconds afterward that Fumiko saw Lee with his fist out post-punch. Fumiko cried out and slapped a hand over her mouth when Gaara hit the ground awkwardly, half on his gourd, rolling and skidding.

Her hands were shaking. Gaara was hurt. Gaara had been injured not once, but twice!

When he stood again, his breathing was erratic and loud enough for Fumiko to actually hear, almost like he had a sore throat. But Gaara didn't get sick, either. His arms hung limp, and his sand rushed and hissed around him, almost like it was uneasy.

..

"Uh-oh." Kankuro murmured when he heard the breathing. Gaara stood slowly.

"Uh-oh is right!" Naruto exclaimed smugly. "Your friend with the eye makeup is getting the stuffing beaten out of him!"

Kankuro was too worried now to care about Naruto's makeup comment. Gaara was all the way awake now. In the worst way possible. "That isn't what I was talking about, kid."

Small splashes of sand burst on the ground as Gaara's armor cracked. Kankuro had never seen this before, but he knew what was coming next. Gaara looked up, and now Kankuro knew why Gaara never smiled.

His mad grin was unnatural and harsh. Gaara's eyes were wide, too wide, and the sand on his face was cracked and falling to pieces like a broken china doll. Except, the only china doll with that kind of expression was only made for horror films and circus acts.

"What the heck-!" Naruto blurted. "What's going on with this guy? His face is falling off!"

The safe one is, at least.

So he incased himself in sand, huh? Kankuro thought. His face was twisted into a worried scowl. Things must be getting bad. I haven't seen that look on his face in a long time...

Sand engulfed him, replacing the broken pieces until Gaara was all put back together again. His arms were crossed, face neutral and terrifying just like nothing had happened. Kankuro could hear Fumiko's worried cries but Gaara probably couldn't.

"I don't get it- is he made of sand, or what?" Naruto stuttered. "All those blows and kicks Lee hit him with, did any of them get through?"

"No. It's like he's wearing a suit of armor."

"A what?"

...

Fumiko knew this was bad. Very, very, ultra-bitterly bad, and it was only going to get worse.

His expression for that split second had terrified her. Not because it was evil and not because it was mad, but because that betrayed the pain he had felt and the amount of control he had. Only one thing in Gaara's mind was that insane, and it sure wasn't Gaara.

She'd tried calling out but it wasn't working at all.

Lee and Gaara faced off again, sand rising and falling in an agitated circle around it's master. The fact he had his armor on was unsettling on it's own, let alone everything else that had happened already.

When they were kids, before they knew a whole lot and before Gaara learned the extent of his control over sand, he had used that armor for everything just in case. Fumiko distinctly remembered a stayover in which he'd somehow learned the plans of yet another assassin, and encased himself for battle. But now... now it meant Gaara felt cornered.

"Well? Is that all?"

Fumiko started at the sound of his voice. Gaara's breathing had gone back to normal as well.

Lee unwrapped his bandages a little, allowing two longish strips of the fabric to hang down. Fumiko wasn't sure why, because it actually could just end up tripping him if he tried to run, but Lee got into a fighting position.

"Get ready."

He blurred and was gone, but Fumiko knew where he was just seconds afterwards when a high-speed cyclone started up around Gaara, who didn't seem alarmed. The windstorm, ironically, complimented the smaller circle of sand around him, spinning slower but in the same direction. Fumiko bit down on an already raw part of the inside of her cheek.

He was planning something.

This battle, in Fumiko's mind at least, had taken a completely different path. She had started out worrying about Lee, hoping that Gaara wouldn't kill him. But now, impossibly, she was worrying for Gaara's safety- he wouldn't lose, but he was getting hurt.

Through the wisps of air, vision was distorted and sound was sucked into the air and blown away. So all she saw was another flash of green and Gaara shooting straight upward. From the way his head was snapped back Fumiko knew he'd just been kicked into the air. When Lee stopped and swept onto his hands, the air dispersed.

"Try this!"

He slammed his foot upward solidly into Gaara's abdomen. Fumiko flinched, but it was far from over. Somehow, defying gravity and logic and everything else, Lee shot up into the air with him, pushing off with his hands. His foot connected with Gaara's stomach and chest over and over. With each kick Gaara was propelled higher.

His body jerked with each hit. Fumiko couldn't watch this anymore. She squished her eyes shut and felt her teeth come together through the skin in her cheek. Fumiko was alarmed when she felt warm blood start to peek out from the corner of her mouth. Fumiko, even with her eyes closed, could hear the thuds. She was shaking slightly.

Gaara was being hurt. Gaara was being hurt. Cakes, Fumiko tried to think. Cake and chocolate and glittery paint. The painful flesh sounds, however, pierced her ears anyway.

There was a sound then like flying kunai. Reluctantly- because as much as Fumiko didn't want to watch Gaara getting hurt, she also didn't want to be stabbed by flyaway blades- Fumiko opened her eyes again. She also wiped her mouth, but more red just took it's place. She must have bitten deeper than she thought.

It turned out that the sound wasn't kunai or shuriken, it was those bandages. Fumiko realized that was the reason Lee had let them down in the first place. They whipped and wrapped around Gaara's body. Lee took hold of the wrappings and started spinning like a twister until they were just a blur of green and red and black.

The spinning was fast enough to generate enough wind to toss Fumiko's hair, and as they spun it swirled in their wake until they looked like an upside-down natural disaster. Fumiko knew which way they were headed- down.

"Primary lotus!"

The arena floor was hard. Fumiko had seen enough ninja thrown into it to know that. So when, as the two of them slammed into the ground with a crash and another bone-shaking tremble in the arena, and the ground below them erupted with an explosion of dust and smoke and chunks of concrete, the only reason Fumiko didn't scream is because she choked on it.

Fumiko leaned over the railing to see, eyes straining to make out rock from person through the smoke. When the smoke cleared and Lee leaped back, Fumiko's eyes widened. Gaara lay completely still in a huge crater, unmoving, amidst a pile of rubble. Long chunks of cement bigger than people spiked the ground around him.

She couldn't produce any more than a whisper.

"Oh my sugar..."

"It is over." Lee said. "I got him!"

"Right on!" Lee's sensei yelled. Fumiko squinted.

"Wait," she said suddenly. "Temari, are those cracks I'm seeing all over him?"

"Y-..."

Her yes cut off with a squeak. Temari's eyes were much too wide as she stared down at the scene below her, probably just as worried as Fumiko had been just a few seconds ago. Fumiko let out a sigh of relief.

Fumiko had once seen Gaara fall asleep with his sand armor once. It wasn't that he'd been wearing it all the time even when he slept, but that he had fought with a man who wasn't an assassin, but a retired Chuunin-level ninja who hadn't quite liked the way the ball they had been playing with all day almost tripped him. He had also been too drunk to tell who they were.

Regardless, afterwards, Gaara had fallen straight asleep at Fumiko's house. Now she was sure that Gaara must have been exhausted after a full day of play, plus the use of his sand armor. But he did, and before he started crying and Fumiko had to wake him up, his sand had spilled off of him and onto her mattress.

When Gaara was unconscious- and, Fumiko theorized, when he was dead- Gaara's sand armor drained away. So why would there be cracks in his sand armor if the fight was over? And if Gaara was severely injured, why wasn't the sand rushing around him to rebuild his defense?

No. Another memory resurfaced of playing a game that needed three.

Of course, the model he had made then was a little crude and always fell apart a little bit, but he had since refined the technique.

Now only one question remained: where was he?

There were cheers of support from Lee's friends. The proctor stepped forward to call the match, possibly to check to see if Gaara was still alive. Fumiko didn't know how weak Gaara was- she really wasn't even sure how the sugar he'd gotten out of that attack, to be honest- so she didn't know how much chakra he had spared for that clone, but it couldn't have been much.

When the clone began to crumble, surprised exclamations rang out everywhere. Fumiko was too relieved to really listen, but instead she scanned the arena. This was weird- how had he done that? The clone caved in on itself, cracking and falling apart until there was pieces of a hollow body. The bits that fell crumbled into sand.

Sand! Sugar, she was stupid.

Gaara reformed just behind Lee, sand falling off him in waves. It was his laugh that let her know he still wasn't himself. Fumiko had wondered if the pain of blows would shock the shukaku back into silence, but apparently it wasn't so. Why wasn't Lee moving?

Gaara put his hands into a jutsu. The sand roared to life around him, and Fumiko's head tried to adjust to worrying about Lee again. All of the fancyfoot speed wasn't going to help him now, even if he wasn't wincing around. He barely blocked the first shot, but the second followed close behind and hit him head-on in the face. Lee was sent sprawling.

Lee tried to get up and fell. It couldn't have been from the hit- just one burst of sand shouldn't have hurt him so badly. Just what exactly was the Primary lotus? Did his pain have something to do with the way he hadn't fallen while he was kicking Gaara higher?

This jutsu was one that Fumiko wasn't familiar. In fact, Gaara almost never used jutsu symbols unless he was dissolving. The sand responded because his chakra was infused into it already, so he didn't need to use jutsus to control it.

Now, though, the sand rose in an unfamiliar way, like a wave. It rose up to the ceiling, bearing down on Lee and casting a shadow across the arena. It rushed forward, curling and crashing into the ground and sweeping Lee away. He was battered and punched and thrown into the back wall. His head cracked against the stone.

The sand receded, swirling like blades around Gaara's body. Lee barely had time to sit up before it slammed into him again, smashing him back into the wall. He tried his best to block but didn't stand a chance.

When Gaara pulled his sand back to see if his target was crushed yet, Fumiko realized he had managed to block some of the attack. It didn't make much of a difference, because he had been pushed back hard enough to crack and drill into the wall. Now there was a crater in that, too.

"Gaara..." she murmured.

Lee rolled out of the way of the next attack, then jumped back again and again and again, crying out every time he did. However, he somehow stayed just in front of Gaara's attacks. The fact that he could still move was incredible; this was the longest fight Gaara had ever participated in.

Lee flinched as Gaara straightened, ducking behind his arms to try and block the inevitable attack. Gaara made another jutsu symbol, sand rushing up behind him. Fumiko bit another wound into her cheek when Lee screamed out in pain.

He managed to stand and run from oncoming attacks, although Fumiko knew it was probably more momentum carrying him forward than any of his previous speed. He avoided Gaara's hits, who seemed to be playing some kind of whack-a-mole game. Blood was dripping off Fumiko's chin now, but she didn't really feel it. She would later, after the worry wore off, but it didn't now.

He was going to be so mad at himself later.

"It's painful to watch." Temari said with a mean smirk. "Why doesn't he just give up?"

"Temari, stop that. Please?"

"Are you bleeding?"

..

"He should quit while he can," Kankuro said, gripping the railing. "It was just bad luck that he got Gaara as an opponent."

"Huh?" Naruto looked down. "Come on, Bushy-brow."

Lee was finally struck and knocked down. Before he could recover, Gaara sent a rush of sand that rolled Lee back with a cry. He skidded against the dirt. Kankuro looked up to see if Temari was smirking at the poor kid, and instead noted the thin line of blood trailing from Fumiko's mouth. What the...

The kid tried to get back up and barely succeeded. Slowly, he crossed his arms in front of his face again.

Gaara laughed. A threatening, shifting hand made of sand rose from the ground in front of him, taunting. "What good do you think that'll do?"

"I pity the kid." Kankuro commented to Naruto, looking across at him. "Gaara will just toy with him until he begs for mercy."

"Well then, Gaara's in for a long match, because that will never happen." The older version of Lee said from across the platform.

"Huh?" he and Naruto said together.

"Lee doesn't know how to give up."

..

Fumiko watched in worry as the claw dropped down on Lee. It was bordering on fearful too, because Lee might die and then Gaara might lose it. Well, more than he already had. He was swept up and deposited roughly onto the ground. Lee grunted in pain, and then screamed again as the sand returned and pounded into his back.

It made Fumiko's chest hot, the sound of screaming. Especially those raw, pain-filled ones.

Lee stumbled to his feet. Sand swirled restlessly across the floor, seemingly egged on by the way Lee stumbled and shook. She wanted to help so bad, but this wasn't like before in the Forest of death. She couldn't interfere here. Her voice obviously wasn't enough anymore, and he was too far to touch without going into the arena, which would both anger him and get someone disqualified.

Without warning, Lee straightened.

His posture was not barely so, and he wasn't falling over. There were scratches and blood on his face and his body but by the way he acted, you would think he had just gotten a new life in a video game. Fumiko blinked.

Sand rushed at him, but Lee dodged.

"That speed- but how? He was so injured!" Fumiko spluttered.

Swiftly he ducked past the sudden blasts of sand, getting closer and closer to Gaara. Gaara's face grew more guarded as the rushing inside him realized it should have finished the fight earlier. Lee dipped and spun and jumped, avoiding every grain with ease and a smile, then whirled to a stop.

All Fumiko noticed was the wind. A lot about this boy induced wind, Fumiko thought idly. His hair and clothes rippled like he was standing on top of a fan.

Gaara put his hands up warily. "I don't know what you think you're planning right now, but this match is over for you."

Whatever was happening, it blocked Lee's reply from Fumiko's ears. But whatever was said or done, it caused Gaara to flinch back. This alone was enough to stir up every one of Fumiko's alarm bells. Nothing scared Gaara.

She could see the faintest traces of blue licking at Lee's arms like flames.

He thrust his arms down, dispelling whatever energy he was creating, and it roared like pulsing soundwaves all around him. But that wasn't what made Fumiko gasp. She was sure that Gaara could sense whatever energy Lee was releasing, and that was why his lips parted. But to Fumiko, the most immediately alarming thing was Lee himself.

His skin was a pale red, eyes whiter than Neji and Hinata's. She could see veins sticking out in his face, like suddenly there was too much blood in his system. It was frightening.

"The fourth gate: Gate of Life- open!"

Lee doubled over. He no longer looked like Lee, with his skin such a dark red and his eyes a stark white rimmed with black, like a mockery of an insomniac. And through it all he was just yelling; not saying anything but yelling as whatever he was doing filled him up inside. Temari sucked a breath in through her teeth.

"Gate of life?" Fumiko asked. "What's that?"

"I don't know," she answered.

Lee vanished. It was just like before, only now whatever he had done seemed to make him both stronger and faster. Gaara took a step back in surprise. Probably he had figured out what came next. Lee didn't even give Fumiko a chance to think, before suddenly there were rocks tearing up all over the place and there was this awful shaking that knocked Fumiko's prosthetic leg until she fell again.

She landed hard on her butt and was almost immediately tried to get back up again. Through the bars she could still see the fight clearly; Gaara was flying straight again with his head snapped up. She scrabbled onto the bar and pulled herself back up. Temari probably would have scoffed at her if she hadn't been so shocked.

Dust and wind clouded Fumiko's vision and stung her eyes but she looked straight ahead. Gaara had been covered up as the cloud rose, so Fumiko couldn't see a thing. Her mind switched again, and she decided then that she would just worry for both of them.

"Up there!" Shikamaru pointed.

Gaara flew up, breaking free of the dust. His back was arced and cracks really were appearing all over him now that Fumiko could see. Fumiko looked frantically for Lee but through the remaining dust, any blurs were concealed.

Suddenly he was in front of Gaara somehow, vertical and in the air. More wind exploded when Lee hit him with a punch that probably would have killed anyone else- Fumiko screamed his name as he flew down, but he didn't even get to hit the ground before Lee was there again, underneath him. Another wave of air and Gaara was catapulted upward.

It was like some twisted game of paddleball. Gaara was smashed back and forth and up and down until he was moving almost as fast as Lee, who seemed to be flying. This was way worse than the primary lotus- Fumiko could hear his breath leaving and the sounds of blows, but she almost couldn't keep up with it.

Lee appeared for a moment on the wall, then was gone again and Gaara jerked forward. Then Lee was on the ground for just a moment, saying something that Fumiko couldn't catch that got snatched away. He launched off of the ceiling, and for a terrible second Fumiko's eyes caught up with him. His skin seemed to almost be pulsing. He pulled back his fist.

With a crack Gaara went shooting back down to the ground. He jerked painfully in the air, almost folding all the way backwards. Fumiko realized that Lee had wrapped a bandage around his middle, under his sash for his gourd. There was silence so loud it pounded blood through Fumiko's ears.

The sand tried to follow Gaara, coming up behind Lee in spikes of gold. But it just wasn't fast enough.

Fumiko was almost glad her eyes failed her, because she missed whatever happened next. There was a cry that sounded like hidden lotus, but Fumiko couldn't be sure, and a bang like cracking stone as Gaara was hit.

The world exploded with noise and dust and bits of fragmented rock determined to stab her in the eyes. Fumiko was braced for more shaking, and shake it did. Her prosthetic rattled audibly, hair whipping into her face and behind her like a live thing. The force of it even blew the trail of blood on her chin sideways, so that it momentarily flowed toward her ear. She covered her face against the onslaught and didn't fall, didn't fall, didn't fall.

...

The sudden contact with the floor, the crush of rocks, and Lee's killing attack all blew shukaku's influence out of the water like the breath from Gaara's lungs. The gourd on his back had liquefied into sand, and now it cradled him on the ground- it still hurt so bad, but he would have died. It felt like barely anything had been cushioned but he knew it had.

Everything screamed all over. His skin ached, his bones were sore, and it felt like lightening was scorching through his body. He was battered and bruised. The very idea of moving made him shudder and he only didn't scream because he didn't have a breath of air to scream with. He sucked air, and it tore at his throat.

So this was pain.

Somewhere he heard his name being called. Somewhere someone was worried. That made him mad, that worry. Here he was, trying not to kill someone, and suddenly he's cracked and broken and Fumiko was bleeding from the mouth, yelling at him to put his arm down.

His sights were locked on the green boy. Some sort of fear, some instinct, something drove him to raise his hand that for once wasn't the shukaku. It was some old primal thing, some kind of irrational need to erase the people that threatened him. Rock Lee could hurt him, Rock Lee could kill him, Gaara had to kill him first before that happened.

The sand rushed forward. Gaara noted with some darkness he always feared he had that he attack had injured Lee, too, he was barely moving, trying desperately to get away from Gaara's sand, stumbling on his hands and knees and failing.

Good. Now he couldn't get away.

Kill him!

The shukaku's voice caused pain but the one in his body locked it's control away. Not that it needed to, Gaara was just as angry as it was, and their rage mixed, and a little bit of fear too. The shukaku didn't want to lose it's host before it could escape, and Gaara didn't want to die. He'd wanted to before, but now some tugging force drove him to madness to keep himself alive.

The sand wrapped around Lee's leg. He tried weakly to smack at it but more sand sucked onto his arm, spreading up to his shoulder like a quick moving disease. He tried to pull away, but it was too late for him to go anywhere. The sand was already tightening to the point of pain, to the point of bad pain, and Gaara looked at his weak eyes and protected himself.

"Sand coffin!"

Lee's scream mixed with somebody else's. He could hear her clearly now, Fumiko, without the shukaku's voice trying to block her out. Telling him to stop. Lee was dangerous to her too, Gaara realized. I might not be able to protect her from that.

He was unconscious now. Lee. He wasn't moving or screaming, and now was the perfect time to kill him, before he somehow got back that terrifying speed and killed Gaara first. Fingers and waves of sand, everything he had, flew forward.

I'm trying!

The shukaku laughed.

"Now you die."

The sand exploded, but Gaara didn't sense his target. Fearing the speed, the pain, he sat up, despite the screaming in his own body. His sand deflected off of something and dispelled, pushed off like an ordinary breeze. Gaara was too weak- who was that? Not Lee- it couldn't be!

Gaara's eyes widened.

The larger green one, Lee's sensei Gai, stood in front of the prone boy. Lee was still unconscious. Gai's expression was hard, his eyes set. He had interfered with Gaara's attack? kill him, kill him, the shukaku asked, but Gaara wasn't stupid. He couldn't fight like this.

But why? Why had he stepped in? Gaara was allowed!

That stance, that block, it triggered memories. It was just like... it was just like... Yashamaru. Like Yashamaru and Fumiko's friendly, mild protective stance whenever Gaara's father was near. Gaara flinched and ducked his head when the thoughts made him demon angry, and when the memories brought up things Gaara didn't want to think about anymore. Those wounds were festering and he didn't need to look at them.

"But why?" Gaara asked, gripping his throbbing head. Lee was going to kill him, so Gaara would kill him first. Simple. Gaara was only protecting himself, this wasn't bloodlust, not really. Gaara had won. "He failed."

He tried to struggle to his knees.

"Because he's..." Gai trailed. No, not trailed- hesitated. Gaara waited, and as his head cleared and pure adrenaline bit his pain away, he realized there was a dawning horror in his chest. "Because he's... he's my student." Gai's gaze hardened. "And also because he is precious to me."

Gaara flinched. Pain welled in his chest.

I almost killed a precious person, Gaara thought with equal parts pain and disgust. Someone else's Fumiko. He couldn't do that. Why had he wanted to do that? Lee couldn't hurt anybody in his state, least of all Gaara. Gaara staggered to his feet, gourd reforming on his back. The sand refilled it. What had he done?

Why not?

"I quit." Gaara said, drowning out the remains of the fading voice in his head. Sand regrew around his wounds, shielding them from view, helping him to walk. Like a puppet. A stupid puppet of a stupid demon that filled his head to the breaking point with lies and filth.

Gaara had won the match. He turned to head back to the stairs, dreading walking up them, dreaded the worried note in Fumiko's voice as she asked if he was okay and not realizing she shouldn't be tainting herself with the sentiment. Damn it. Damn it all.

"The winner is- huh?"

Gaara looked back over his shoulder.

And then turned around in his shock.

Lee was standing. He had already lost, but he was still standing. The arm and leg he had crushed bled and shook, and Gaara knew that all of the bones and muscles and veins inside of them had been broken and torn and flattened until there was nothing but painful splinters left inside. So how was he supporting himself?

His sensei turned his head to see what Gaara was looking at, and spun when he saw his student. Lee's arm was up in a defensive way, like he wanted to attack, but Gaara felt no intent. At all. In fact, his chakra was drained and dimmed in the way that it was when one was...

"It can't be," Gai said, surprised. He stepped toward Lee, holding out his hands in a comforting way and putting them on Lee's shoulders. "No, Lee. It's all right. It's all over now. Anyway, you're in no condition to-"

His breath caught.

Lee was unconscious. His eyes were glazed over and half-lidded. Gaara watched as Gai began to cry, and then speak on like the whole arena wasn't listening. Was Lee so determined to win that he would stand without even realizing it? Gaara now saw what he had previously mistaken for a killing intent was actually just that- determination. That 'joy of the fight' that Fumiko had never understood, and that Gaara didn't always feel.

Lee fell into Gai's arms, unable to support himself any longer. His eyes closed.

"Lee... you are a splendid ninja."

"The winner... is Gaara." the proctor said finally.

Gaara turned to leave as Gai gently laid Lee out on the ground. He could hear the clacking of Fumiko's metal prosthetic on the platform and knew she would be at the bottom of the stairs to greet him. He didn't look.

The boy in orange that Fumiko had taken an interest in, Naruto, ran past him toward Lee. But as they passed each other, Naruto looked at him; not quite a glare, and not quite a look of recognition. Gaara couldn't place it, but something shot through him like an arrow and made him stop. He stared back after Naruto as he joined the medical-nin surrounding Lee's unconscious body.

Familiarity? Something stirred nervously in shukaku's consciousness.

Gaara shook his head and continued to the stairs.

..

Fumiko didn't wait for Gaara to make his way up the stairs. She made her way down them on her own, gripping the railing and carefully- but hurriedly- balanced her prosthetic onto each step before descending to the next one. Gaara stepped towards her just as she finally made her way to the bottom step.

"Gaara! Are you alright? Does it hurt?" She wrung her hands. "Sugar, I don't know what to do! You've never been injured before, I-"

"Fumiko."

His tone made her face crumple a little. "I know."

He looked back at the scene behind him. Fumiko heard the floating words from the medical-ninja, and didn't like any of it. She didn't know if Gaara could hear it or not. Probably.

"There are bone fractures and muscle tears throughout his body. He's facing a long and difficult rehabilitation. But I'm afraid... that's not the worst of it. His left arm and leg in particular have suffered massive damage. I'm sorry; I know how much it means to you both. But he'll never fight again. His days as a shinobi are over."

Fumiko knew better than to try and bite her lip again. Gently, she touched Gaara's face, then took his elbow and led him up the stairs. He was shell-shocked anyway, he walked just as slowly as Fumiko on the stairs. As they made their way up, the medics took Lee's stretcher out of the room.

"Easy for you to say it's over! What about bushy-brow?" Naruto demanded loudly. If Gaara hadn't heard the first part, he heard that for certain. "What's he supposed to do now? Failure- I thought you said we could win! I thought you were gonna show how a failure can- it was all a lie, wasn't it?"

"Come on, Gaara. One more fight. Then we can go home." Fumiko said quietly.

"That's enough, Naruto."

"But sensei! It isn't fair!" Naruto's voice was on the edge of tears. Fumiko felt her own eyes prick, but she couldn't cry now. She had seen Lee's determination. Fighting was all he'd had. "All he ever wanted was to prove himself against Sasuke and Neji!"

"And maybe that's what led to his downfall."

Fumiko tuned out of their conversation. The rushing in her veins had been replaced by sadness. She could feel her happiness bubbling down under the surface, but it would be a while before it broke through this. On one side, a crippled ninja who's only goal was now impossible; on the other, a boy who couldn't control himself but wanted to.

This was why Fumiko didn't like fighting. There was too much pain, too many complications. Poor Lee. Poor Gaara.

They cleared the last step. Fumiko tripped a little but caught herself, and now she was more balanced on the flat surface. He trailed where she led him without a word, thoughtless, or maybe he was thinking too much. Fumiko was too.

"Good to have you back, Gaara." Temari commented with a flash of an almost-smile-but-still-a-smirk.

He didn't answer.

Eventually the jonin and other ninja on the arena cleared the floor. Fumiko couldn't believe they were going to hold another match after what had just happened- the air was still full of pain and even if it wasn't, the arena itself was partially destroyed. But the proctor did come, and he did announce the next match.

"Now then. The last two competitors. Will you please step forward."

When they did so, Fumiko didn't really pay them much mind. It was rude, but Fumiko didn't want to watch another fight. She wanted to go home and make something and be useful, not stand by as someone else was pummeled into the ground.

Instead of watching she pressed herself close to Gaara. She didn't know how much she was actually comforting him, but she figured it had to helping at least a little, and anyway, his cool body heat soothed her as well. Lee's screams were still ringing in her ears.

"Now, let the tenth round begin."

"You can do it!" Shikamaru cheered.

"Fatso!" Ino yelled happily. Fumiko didn't know why.

Right away, after yelling a bit, Chouji blew himself up to the size of a small tree, ducking in his body parts. Offhandedly Fumiko knew that covering his ears was a good strategy. But because she'd gone to a villagers' school rather than a ninja one, she'd learned a bit about sound and the mediums it could travel through. From what Gaara had told her, this guy was a little like Zaku with his control over sound. This match was over.

Chouji couldn't even very well control where he was going.

He rolled around, trying to squash the ninja as his teammates cheered him on. Dosu just jumped around to avoid him until Chouji crashed into a wall and got stuck. Then, he thrust his fist into the squishy ninja's stomach. Or maybe it wasn't his stomach, it might have been his back, it was hard to tell. Dosu flicked the holey metal cuff on his arm, and there was a ringing ding.

A vibration, a puff of smoke, and then an unconscious Genin.

"The winner is: Dosu Kinuta."

The fight had taken two, maybe three minutes tops. Fumiko sighed. Medical ninja tended to Chouji, and Dosu just walked back toward his platform, probably pleased with himself. Fumiko could see that Chouji wasn't really hurt, just frazzled by the sound. She felt bad, though.

"And with that match, the third exam preliminaries are now finished." the proctor announced. "All qualifying genin please make your way down."

Fumiko walked with Gaara. When the proctor gave her an odd look, Fumiko just shot him a vicious, tired glare, and he backed off. Fumiko wasn't in the mood to be told off today. Eight of the nine qualifying Genin- plus Fumiko- assembled in the arena. Gaara helped her to find a semi-flat surface to stand on.

"First, I would like to commend all those who have advanced to the finals for the third level of the Chuunin exams." the proctor said. "Well, there's one person missing, but still, congratulations."

"And now, I will begin the explanation of the final rounds." the Hokage said, tipping his hat forward. "In the final rounds, each of you will put your battle skills on display. You'll demonstrate the power and control you've achieved in your own respective disciplines. Accordingly, the final battles will commence one month from now."

A whole month?

"Wait, we're not gonna do it right here and now?" Naruto asked, confused.

"This is to provide a suitable period for preparation."

"What do you mean by that?" Neji asked.

"Simply this: in addition to announcing the conclusion of the preliminary matches to each country's leaders, we must also have some time to prepare and distribute the summons for the final selection. Not to mention that you examanees are going to need time to prepare for something that is this important."

"Look, I don't really get what you're trying to say." Kankuro said impatiently. "What's the point of this?"

"I mean that to know your adversaries and prepare yourselves, you need time."

His expression was not pleased, in fact it was a little irritated. Fumiko elbowed Kankuro to get him to be quiet. He would talk about it later anyway, and Fumiko really just wanted to go home, ad get Gaara out of here as well.

"Even though up to this point all the battles have been real, as I'm sure you all can attest, they were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an unknown enemy. But that's no longer the case, now that you've battled each other. So in order to make the finals fair and just, we're giving you this month. Each of you must embrace this opportunity to practice hard and learn some new tricks, because, by now, everyone here knows your techniques, so using your old, tired tricks is a sure way to lose in the finals. And remember to get some rest as well."

Fumiko wondered if Gaara was going to train at all. He didn't really need to after all; unless he wanted to gain a better control than the razorlike precision he already had over his sand. She knew Kankuro and Temari would.

"Now, with all that behind us, I'd like to begin winding things up. But before we can bring this to an end, first there is one more important matter to take care of before the final rounds."

"Let's get on with it," Naruto whined. "I mean, come on, how long do we have to wait before we start training?"

"In a calm, orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box that Anko is holding."

"Everyone just stay where you are, I'll just come to you." Anko commanded. Her smirk was the same as Fumiko remembered it to be. She stepped down from her spot by the Hokage, making her way first to Dosu. "Just take one."

She went down the line of Genin, offering each person the box. They reached inside and pulled out a folded slip of paper. Gaara pulled one out, and when she got to Fumiko, Fumiko shook her head. "No, no. Remember? Not participating."

Anko grinned at her. "Oh, yeah! Hey, kid. Just fine, I see."

After a while, everyone had a paper. It turned out that on the papers, there were numbers.

"Good, now everyone has one." Ibiki said, looking up from his clipboard. "Going from left to right, tell me the number that's written on your slip of paper."

"I've got eight," Dosu said.

"Number one of course," Naruto said.

"Seven," Temari said indifferently.

"Five." Kankuro called.

"Three." Gaara said shortly.

"Nine," Shikamaru muttered.

"Two," Neji said.

"Six." Shino listed.

"And that means Sasuke will be number four." Ibiki announced, jotting the numbers down in his clipboard. "Right."

"Very good. Now I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament is going to work."

"Eh?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Is that what the numbers are four?" Shikamaru asked irritably. "Drawing lots?"

"Ibiki," the Hokage said. "You may reveal which ninja have been paired up."

"Yes, sir." Ibiki said and turned the clipboard around for everybody to seen. It looked like a tournament sheet all right, listing everyone down for who they would fight and when. Naruto would be fighting Neji, Gaara would be up against Sasuke, Kankuro would face Shino, and there seemed to be some sort of mini-preliminary involving Temari, Dosu, and Shikamaru.

"May I ask you a question?" Shikamaru said, raising a hand.

"You may."

"All right, if this is a tournament, does that mean there's only going to be one winner? I mean, only one of is going to be able to become a Chuunin then?"

"Actually, it's quite the contrary." the Hokage said. "There are going to be several judges for the final round. They, including myself, the shinobi leaders, and the kazekage, the lords from the various countries that ultimately will be assigning your missions to you. Through this tournament, these judges will be able to make a thorough evaluation of your abilities. They will then decide whether any or all of you possess the qualities required of a Chuunin. Even if someone loses the first round, they could still become a Chuunin."

"So there's actually a chance that every one of us who competes in the final selection could become chuunin," Temari said, eyes narrowed in thought.

"Correct, but conversely there's also a chance that none of you will be chosen. The advantage of fighting more rounds in the tournament is in getting more chances to display your talents in front of the judges who decide your fate. Does that answer your question, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru didn't respond.

"I thank you all for your patience. Now let us adjourn until next month."


	16. 'Normal' Time

It had never really helped Gaara when she beat around the bush, so Fumiko was usually kind of blunt. Today was no different.

When they had finally- finally- been dismissed from the preliminaries, the Genin had trickled out of the arena area to find that there actually hadn't been a hidden room in the tower. Each ninja had been brought to a building close to where the first exam had taken place. The hospital was close by, and a few of the ninja broke of immediately to visit their teammates.

Because Gaara needed to talk again and Fumiko needed to sit down, she found a bench just outside the academy. It was shaded by trees, almost hidden by the shadow of the building beside it. It wasn't invisible, but it was private. Temari and Kankuro hovered by the gates of what looked like a ninja academy- where they had come from- waiting to leave.

When she sat down, Fumiko almost immedietly felt the cold rush of pins-and-needles in the end of her stump leg as blood flowed back into the skin. She debated for a moment, and when Gaara was quiet, she leaned down and unhooked her prosthesis, consciously deactivating the chakra flow that held it taut. Relieved, she placed her prosthetic next to her and pulled her leg up to rub it.

"Okay. So what exactly happened out there? I couldn't follow; I just saw the... hits land..." Fumiko trailed off for a second, biting her lip (which was starting to hurt) then took a deep, calming breath. "Anyway, first thing, are you injured or not?"

"Yes," he stated. "Mildly. Under the sand."

"So you do still have the armor on, then," she said aloud, then lapsed into a brief silence, lips pressed together worriedly. The she came to a decision. "Okay, we can do this fast. Now this is a big old question: why did you act the way you did?"

He frowned. "..."

"With all of the... the freaking out," she clarified. "That weird smile and all that. Sometimes it seemed like you were in charge and sometimes it didn't, but right up at the end there it was like... almost like it was both of you. And those jutsus- I've never seen some of the ones you used in there."

If it had only been the shukaku trying to kill Lee, then he wouldn't have hesitated to attack Gai as well. Or at least, that was Fumiko's reasoning. Because he stopped before he killed them, the only reasonable conclusion should be that it was Gaara, but then why had he looked so disoriented? From the look in Gaara's eyes now it was something that bothered him as well.

"That's because I never used them before," Gaara said quietly. "I don't... really know what happened."

"But, Gaara, do you realize what you've done?"

His expression was a question all in it's own. With all of the grief and confusion, it must not have ever crossed his mind. Of course, he had still crippled a shinobi for life and that was bound to weigh even further on his conscious, however... Fumiko smiled. It was a soft smile, because she needed to get over it just as much as Gaara did, but it was a smile.

"Gaara, you stopped. Shukaku was in full-on bloodlust-killing-crazy mode and you shut him down. I think."

He stared at her. "I ruined somebody's life."

"Gaara..." she struggled for something to say, and decided to go with honest. "Yeah, you might have. But beating yourself up over it won't help. Maybe you could come with me or something when I go around the hospital rooms."

His face was still grave and barely shifted. His eyes flickered away from her face to stare in the direction of the other Sand Siblings, who appeared to be in an argument with a resident Konoha ninja. He accepted that truth, but didn't acknowledge it further, so Fumiko tried something else. "Do you mind telling me what was going on? I was worried."

"Don't worry." he said first. "I don't know. I told you. It was just... I..."

"Just the last bit. Like I said before, it was impossible to tell who was in control." Fumiko said, not in a prying way, but in a gentle one. "That's just... it's never happened before."

..

Gaara didn't want to try and explain the terrible feeling he'd had just before the end. It hadn't been pleasant and even now, it made his skin crawl. For a moment, for just that one awful second, he had been in harmony with a bloodthirsty, psychotic demon.

He'd wanted to kill. He'd wanted to see somebody's blood arc in the air, just in a flash of a second he wanted to hear that final scream that meant his prey was dead, that the danger was gone and there was no longer a person alive that could hurt him. It had been desperate, that want, a fight-or-flight response to being injured for the first time.

If Lee could hurt him like that, he could be a threat. That had been his reasoning- instinctual and unfeeling, like an animal. The only things he had felt was pain, fear, and desperation. His anger had mixed with the shukaku's until it was so tangled up the strands were almost seamlessly woven together. It had been a single will, for once, and not two.

That scared him almost more than Lee's speed.

But Fumiko was waiting for an answer. Whenever she spoke, he noticed the torn flesh of her cheek, and the spots of red still present of the inside of her lips. It was easy to tell when Fumiko was upset because she always gnawed on her lips and cheeks badly enough to cause damage. She usually wasn't, though, so it was almost never a problem.

"I can't... explain it." he said evasively, like Fumiko couldn't tell by now when he was avoiding a question. However, she didn't press the subject, although Gaara knew she would bring it up again at some point, whether out of worry or pure curiosity.

She rubbed at the skin of her leg. It was a little red, and would probably be sore for a while, if Gaara knew anything about the prosthetic. Gaara's own skin throbbed underneath his sand; it was painful, but bearable. Almost a little shocking, like a splash of cold water in his face. (Not that he knew what that felt like; nobody had ever dared to that while he was sleeping, and Fumiko tried to let him rest.)

What really bugged him was his response to Fumiko's earlier comment. For the first time ever, he had managed to completely quash the shukaku. It was still bubbling just under his consciousness and muttering things, but it was doing that on Gaara's best day and the mumbling was whispering, not a headache and bass, so he wasn't too worried about it.

But he'd caught parts of the conversation behind him. Gaara didn't know anything about Lee, but from the way the boy Naruto had reacted to the news, Gaara could only think that being a ninja was the only important thing the ninja had had. Had Gaara really just ripped that away from him? It was impossible but yet... Gaara failing to kill someone may have made it worse.

After a moment of quiet, Fumiko reattached her prosthetic to her leg, but didn't try and put any pressure on it. Her legs swung off the edge of the bench like they did when Gaara and Fumiko sat on their swings- they hadn't done that in a while...

"Lee sure is something, huh?" she said finally, startling him out of his thoughts. Her face was thoughtful, not quite unnerved. "I never thought..."

You thought I was invincible, didn't you? Gaara thought satirically. Well, that's ironic, because so did I.

The thought provoked a question that had been lurking around in the back of his mind, which finally crawled out into the spotlight. It was rude, it was startling, and it was ugly: could somebody else be capable of hurting him? Were there more like Lee?

"We'll get you all fixed up back home, okay?" she said. "I'm sure Temari at least brought some stuff for that."

..

She hadn't really noticed anything peculiar at first. Some of the Genin came out looking sad, some happy, some worried, and all relieved. Yuuki could understand that. She had been through the Chuunin exams before, and they weren't exactly a cakewalk.

But when she spotted them parting down the middle like they were avoiding an airborne disease, she had to admit, it made her just a little bit curious.

She had come to see the new Chuunin exam participants. She hadn't gotten the chance before, since they hadn't been out in the open since the exams had started, but when she'd gotten the notification from a friend of hers that helped run the letter system between the villages that the preliminaries had finished, she'd just had to come and check it out.

Now she stood by the gates of Konoha Ninja Academy and tried to ignore the watchful eyes of the two Genin in front of her. They both were dressed strangely; and once she saw the Suna headbands she immediately became wary. Bad things had been said about these two.

Of course, she already knew some of what had happened from the medic-nin at the hospital she had been stopping in at to check on an ally of hers who'd broken her arm in a sparring session. They had been exasperated, mumbling among themselves about the stupidity of throwing a bunch of kids at each other like fighting dogs.

Yuuki blinked and looked again when she saw the two kids the crowd of eight was avoiding like the plague. Two particularly small kids, she might add, almost shorter than her herself. Although the boy with his red hair unnerved her somehow, with his blank glare and rigidly frozen aura, he was still just that- a boy. A genin. The girl she didn't know quite what to make of.

The most easily noticeable thing was the prosthetic on her right leg. After that came the slightly ruffling brown cloak she wore, almost like a cape. There were other features as well- she was thin, with kind of a plain face, and brown hair. Yuuki couldn't make out her eyes from here. She limped slightly. They were silent, her face relieved and worried, his face dark and foreboding. The girl led the boy to a dark stain of collected shadows, where, Yuuki, realized, there was a bench.

They sat and spoke quietly among themselves. If she squinted, Yuuki could make out the movement of their mouths and the expressions on their faces, but she couldn't tell what they were saying.

The boy's eyes were startling from the shadows, pupiless blue blotches in the dark surrounded by white. No pupils, and Yuuki realized that the kid's eyes were lined with black, like he was an insomniac with a fetish for mascara. The girl removed whatever kind of prosthetic she had been wearing, and she saw the extent of whatever damage had been caused. She didn't have a headband anywhere; so why would she have been so injured?

Her focus shifted as she noticed the burning ray-gun stares of a few of the Genin still milling about. There was a team of three that she recognized as Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru, as well as a few jonin that hadn't yet left. Every person that had come out of the building and not headed straight for the hospital was staring at the two- or, more specifically, just the boy.

Fear. Fear and something else that Yuuki just couldn't place, like disgust and awe and a hardness she recognized. It was the same way they stared at the other kid, Naruto Uzumaki, the trickster who had painted all over the Hokage mountain. Yuuki was pretty sure she'd missed something with that one- whatever it was that made the other villagers so hateful towards him, she was out of that loop.

Which made her all the more curious about the red-headed boy. He was a little freaky, sure, and kind of made Yuuki's hair stand on edge when she looked at him, but that happened when she looked at some of the powerful jonin and strangers sometimes as well, so why was he watched like that?

The girl, whoever she was, seemed to be worried. But the boy didn't appear to be injured at all, so why would she be? Then Yuuki did a double-take.

Wait. So this boy had just come out of the chuunin exams after the forest of death and preliminaries, right? How in the world hadn't he been at least scratched? Now it was too much. Pushed forward by a combination of concern and curiosity, she stepped in the direction of their bench. The girl was talking about something or other, still rubbing her leg, and the boy's face was troubled.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." a male voice warned lightly.

Yuuki's eyes darted to the sand village kid; the one with the purple lines of makeup on his face. The puppeteer. He and his companion, the one with the fan, had detached themselves from the chain link fence and moved closer to her, like they were trying to be intimidating or at least noticed. The makeup kid's lazy grin irked her a little, and the smirk on the girl's wasn't much better.

"Oh yeah?" she said, narrowing her eyes. "And why's that?"

Makeup kid's smile seemed to not change, but the girl's smirk stretched. They said nothing, and that served to just make Yuuki want to try out that technique she had been working on that Tsunade had used in her time; the one with chakra and a hellish punch, but she figured that it would be better not to attack foreign ninja on the grounds that they had smiled at her wrong.

"You were going to see Gaara, right?" the girl said. "That's a fatality waiting to happen. He's talking to Fumiko."

"Mmm," she hummed cheekily, completely bypassing her comment. Temari, Yuuki remembered from one of the medic-nin's tirades. The one who had tried to throw her unconscious opponent onto a pile of weapons. Instead she looked at the other one, Kankuro, who'd broken somebody's spine knowing he would regenerate.

He hadn't totally pissed her off yet. Actually, with his headwear pointed at the edges and his face paint outlining his thin eyes, he almost looked like a cat. "I want to talk to both of them, actually. Why is that such a problem?"

Temari frowned. "No, really. He might actually kill you."

"I'm a chuunin," she said, rolling her eyes. "I could be killed any day, so if you and cat boy over there don't have any other reasons other than he could kill me, I'm going to go talk to them."

"Sheesh." Kankuro muttered. He seemed off-put by her cat boy comment. "You're just really stupid, aren't you? Gaara hosts the tailed beast Shukaku."

Tailed beast. She remembered the term from her required research on the other villages. Demons of chakra, that could be sealed into a person, thus known as a jinchuriki. But she couldn't remember which one the Shukaku was. Her research hadn't been specifically on the beasts but the villages, so she didn't know much about them.

Yuuki caught Kankuro's quick glance at the two, still conversing on the bench. Like he was afraid if Gaara knew he was talking about him, he'd kill him. The same way some adults looked over their shoulder as they talked about 'that Uzumaki boy.' A few dots connected in her head, and she decided to do a little bit more research into the tailed beasts after this conversation.

She leveled her gaze at Kankuro. "So what? He's still a little boy. I'm not going to be afraid of him just because you two idiots obviously are."

They seemed disconcerted. Kankuro was starting to fidget with the cloth holding his puppet, like he was anticipating attacking her. Temari was beginning to scowl, which twisted her face in an unattractive way.

"He's more than just a 'little boy'," Temari shot back. "He's evil. Twisted. Damaged in the head. He kills on a regular basis."

Looking at this girl Temari with her not-a-smirk-but-a-smug-frown, Yuuki felt something angry snap. She thought about the way the one-legged girl had held the boy, Gaara, by the elbow, hobbling along but still gentle and selfless as could be. Why would someone like that hang around with a heartless jinchuriki?

"And you're not? From what I heard, you tried to kill an unconscious kunoichi even though you obviously won. You don't think that's 'evil' or 'twisted'? In case you haven't noticed, we're shinobi and sometimes kill on a regular basis, so what makes him any different? Anybody who feels nothing and tries to fling somebody onto a pile of weapons is evil in my book, thank you. And I told you, I'm going to talk to them!"

Around that time, the three of them looked up at once to the crowd of shadows.

And all three of them promptly wanted to fall over for getting into a shouting match (people had started to stare quite a while ago) when they realized that sometime during the squabble, the objects of their discussion had up and left. The bench was empty and they were nowhere in sight.

..

"I wonder who Kankuro and Temari were talking to," Fumiko said conversationally as she cracked an egg into the glass bowl. She tossed the shell into the sink and reached across the counter for the vanilla extract. She couldn't quite reach it, and Gaara shrugged and pushed it forward the extra half foot. Smiling, she grabbed it, and set about measuring out a teaspoon of the brown liquid.

"Anyway, I should make extra. Kankuro always ends up eating like a whole batch, and I already need at least twenty brownies. Pass me the brown sugar, would you?"

Gaara complied and watched as she whisked the wet ingredients together in a bowl. Because it was something he couldn't set on fire or stain things with, he was in charge of mixing the dry ingredients, and kept glancing down at Fumiko's written measurements and spilling flour down his front.

It was all over the place, flour and sugar. He didn't always prefer to help, but Fumiko was pressed for time if she wanted them all done and cooled in time for her visit to the hospital in the next couple of days, so he allowed himself to be pulled into the kitchen. She poured her two bowlfuls of wet mix into the mixer, then as Gaara handed her his added that as well.

Adding an extra half-handful of sugar for luck, Fumiko switched on the mixer to low and held the top with her hand to monitor it. She checked the clock on the wall above the oven absently. "And speaking of them, I wonder where they are? Maybe leaving them there wasn't the best idea. Can you get out the cookie pans? Oh, wait, no, put the oven mitts on first-!"

Luckily for Gaara, who had forgotten the oven was already pre-heated, his sand jumped up and coated his hand. Still, he was startled to feel heat pulsing through it. He pulled his hand out quizzically.

"Gaara, the oven's on. Here, I'll get them," she said and pulled on her yellow oven mitts, bending down to pull the pans off of the rack and putting them on the burners. "Okay, this is less dangerous; can you grab the non-stick spray? It's the can in the shelf over there that says pam on it."

He retrieved it and handed it to her. She sprayed the first black pan down. "Thank you. Oh, don't make that face; at least now I can say you helped me make the peace offerings."

She burst into laughter when his uncomfortable frown deepened. He had somehow gotten cocoa and baking powder in his hair and on his face, and combined with the alienated expression on his face, it was just hilarious. "Or not," she said as she poured the dark brown batter into the pans. "But about what I was saying before, they should be getting here soon."

Fumiko slid the pans onto the rack and shut the cover. She slid off her mitts and handed them to Gaara, quickly typing in the cooking time. "There. Put these on, will you?" she said, handing the mitts to Gaara. "I'll be right back."

She skipped off to her room in the small inn-like apartment.

Once they had gotten back to the makeshift home, Gaara had shrugged out of his gourd. His sand armor trickled off, revealing an array of bruises and bloodless scrapes. Immediately Fumiko had dug through all their bags and done the best she could to dress them. Most of the bandages were on his chest and torso, but there were some on his arm, and a size medium bandage on his cheek.

Fumiko rooted through her bag for the disposable camera she had brought. Bandages plus his whitened shirt and skin and hair, coupled with the oven mitts in the messy kitchen strewn with baking supplies and bowls? A priceless shot she would likely never get again. The trick was going to be actually taking a picture before he covered the lens with sand.

..

Kankuro opened the door to their assigned living space. He was tired, he was irritable (cat boy? Really?) and Crow was getting heavy on his back. Temari wasn't much happier, either- before she could openly challenge the irritating kunoichi that had insulted them, the girl had left. Temari had never caught a name, so the vengeance was a lost cause.

He stepped inside to the smell of cooking brownies, which increased his mood considerably.

What startled him, though, was the combination of husky laughter and the hobbling rush of brown that raced past him to the bedrooms. A thin trail of sand traced through the air after her, and even though she was being chased by Gaara's deadly sand, Fumiko was shrieking with laughter and giggling. Fumiko tripped a little bit on the carpet before scrambling into a room and shutting the door. The sand poofed against the door.

Kankuro just stared at the door for a moment in complete confusion, then turned his head as he heard a familiar voice say, "Fumiko, I'm-"

Gaara emerged from the kitchen and froze when he saw them. Kankuro's expression was probably just as flabbergasted as Temari's. Gaara had bits of brown in his hair, and what looked like flour spilled on the front of his shirt. On one hand was a half-removed oven mitt, the other tugging on it. His face had been trapped in a smile, but it dropped down to its usual cool gaze when he noticed they were there.

"Um, Gaara..." Temari started, and then stopped awkwardly. There was a stare-off, and all three of them looked like a deer caught in headlights.

The door smacked closed behind Temari.

Had Gaara been..?

"Kankuro, Temari, you're home!" A cheery voice said suddenly from the bedrooms.

..

"Hey, Kankuro, there's about a third of a bowl of fudge brownie batter left over in the fridge if you want to-" Fumiko didn't even get to finish her sentence before Kankuro was gone into the kitchen. That was one down, just one for to go. "Temari, I don't know if you noticed, but the fan in your bedroom is broken-"

Temari shoved past her to get to her bedroom, determined to fix the only stream of wind available in the tiny apartment. Fumiko grinned. She hadn't been lying; the fan had stopped working some time after Gaara and Fumiko returned home, but she hadn't realized it would come in such handy. Gaara was left alone in the living room, forgotten.

"Gaara," she said in a whispered tone and winked at him. "Go change or something while they're distracted. And remember, they were only hallucinating."

Gaara nodded at her gratefully and passed her in the hallway to get to his room.

Fumiko had been running to her room to hide the camera when the door had opened. She'd ran right past Temari and Kankuro without really registering it, and slammed the door to her bedroom. Only after she'd successfully hidden away the evidence and went to see why Gaara wasn't chasing after her anymore did she realize he'd been caught in the open in front of his siblings.

Not that Fumiko thought there was anything wrong with being caught baking, but for some reason Gaara didn't like looking or acting sentient. He was utterly convinced that if he told anybody anything about himself or his life, they would turn on him. Fumiko understood that, though. Some things just stayed with a person.

When she pattered into the kitchen to start cleaning up, Kankuro was already holding the bowl.

"The brownies will be done soon, I made three batches, and no, they aren't for you guys." she said before he could ask. "They're for the hospitalized ninja. But," she continued before he could protest, "The third batch is extra so you can have some of that."

"Was Gaara helping you bake or something?"

"No; I tripped and spilled a bowl on him. See, it's all over the floor."

It was a very believable alibi. Fumiko tripped all the time since her balance was so off, and there really was flour all over the floor, although that hadn't in fact been Fumiko's fault. Kankuro looked satisfied, and left promptly for his bedroom, taking the bowl with him. Fumiko smiled to herself, and, humming, set about cleaning the thoroughly broken in kitchen.

Only twenty people had participated in the preliminaries. With the two batches she planned on using for the injured and possibly even the teammates undoubtedly visiting them, there should be enough to go around and still have one or two extras.

..

Gaara was still upset about Lee the next day. Fumiko hadn't slept, and Gaara hadn't been able to relax enough in an unfamiliar place to try and rest, so the two had camped out in his room and watched the sky from the window. Temari had finally managed to get her fan working and slept soundly, as well as Kankuro, who got sleepy whenever he ate a lot.

The brownies were done and sat in the fridge, but Fumiko wasn't going to bring them until tomorrow. There was no point in lugging around twenty four brownies if none of the patients were conscious or able to be visited. She figured three days would be enough for the medic-nin to work at least a little magic.

"Gaara," she said absently. It was slurred because she had a toothbrush in her mouth, but he still looked at her from where he stood rewrapping the bandages on his chest. He had taken off the ones on his face and arms because they were too visible, but Fumiko had insisted that he keep on the ones that weren't.

"Yes?"

"...does it hurt very bad?" she asked. Fumiko hadn't originally even meant to ask a question at all; just tell him that he wasn't doing it correctly, but her mouth had outrun her brain. She put the toothbrush down and stepped behind him, taking the cloth from his fingers, pulling apart the loose wrapping.

"I'm not used to it," he answered. "That's all."

Fumiko wrapped the bandage around his chest once, then crossed it over his left shoulder. "Yeah? I know pain sucks."

With deft fingers she bound it tightly. Under his arm, over his right shoulder, wrap twice. She had done this four times already, ad was now an expert at wrapping.

"Mm. It was worse yesterday."

"Well that's good, considering that it happened yesterday," she said humorously and tied it off, then patted the back of his shoulder. "There." She reached toward the hamper and handed him his fishnet top. He winced a bit as he put it on. "Is it a bad thing that I'm getting better at this?"

"You just pick things up easily."

"Yeah, yeah," she said and stepped back to the sink to pick up her toothbrush. "It can't be that unusual to do well in school, can it?"

Gaara muttered something that sounded like "And cooking, and art, and genjutsu..."

Fumiko pointed her toothbrush at him. "Hey. Says the Genin prodigy who never felt pain until he was twelve."

"That wasn't me, though."

"Anyway," she said pointedly, rinsing off her toothbrush and spitting into the sink. She wiped her mouth. "There's supposed to be a full moon tonight. It's been a while since we both saw one together, hasn't it?"

"How do you even know that?" He pulled on his black shirt. His bandages disappeared.

"I keep track of the phases." she said, pinning her cloak around her neck. "And we were looking at the moon last night, Gaara, really?"

It was a good thing the apartment they shared had two bathrooms. Kankuro and Temari felt uncomfortable sharing one with Gaara, and it was nearly impossible for Gaara to effectively put on his own bandages. (which frustrated him to absolutely no end.) Gaara and Fumiko were entirely used to sharing a bathroom, since more often than not they were staying over at the other's house.

"Fumiko! Gaara!" Temari called from the living room. "Kankuro and I are going out!"

"Okay!" Fumiko called back. "See you later!"

The front door closed.

Fumiko draped her necklace over her head, then straightened it. The gold paint was chipping a little bit, but that was okay. The paint had been chipping for a while now; or at least fading. Fumiko didn't want to fix her clumsier work from years ago, though. It was like a picture frozen in time.

"Where's my scarf?" he muttered.

"Still in the bedroom, next to your gourd." she paused, looking at his reflection next to hers. "I need to repaint your kanji."

"Maybe later," he said dismissively. Before she could ask, he said, "And your sandal is wrapped up in your covers somewhere. You shouldn't wear shoes to bed."

"Okay, mom." she paused. "By the way, I got a letter from Mai today. It came in the mail about an hour ago."

"Yes? What did she say?"

"That she was doing well in the academy. She asked how we were doing. Oh, and she said that she finally learned how to use the clone technique. Good for her, but I hope she doesn't use it to irritate that bully of hers..."

Mai was nine now, and had since joined the academy. She, unlike her older sister, had developed a fiery personality and a drive for fighting and competing. She did have her sister's ability to learn pretty much anything but lacked the motivation to study, only to train physically.

"I'm telling you, if she knocks him down, he'll leave her alone."

"Yeah, but she knocks a lot of people down. That's basically how she solves all of her problems."

"It works, doesn't it?"

"So not the point! Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted me to write something for you when I reply later."

..

Dear Mai,

We just got your letter this morning. Gaara's doing great in his fights, but did you know he could actually get hurt? I'm serious! I just wrapped his bandages ten minutes ago. He says to tell you hello. 

It's amazing here. It's all really green, and the air is completely clean. There are trees everywhere! The colors are just incredible. The other Genin re all really strong, and I think I'll be good friends with some of them. I'm bringing them my chocolate fudge brownies tomorrow.

I hear you've succeeded in your technique! That's great, but if you haven't already, please don't use it to attack Eishi. 

With love,

Fumiko & Gaara.

..

"Come on, Gaara!" Fumiko laughed and tugged on his hand. Gaara followed.

They were on their way to kikyo castle. Fumiko had spotted it before while they were touring Konoha those first couple of days, and when the sun had start to set, she knew right away where the best spot to see the moon rise would be. It was high enough that Gaara could see all around him, which would set his nerves at ease; and in a clear enough area that the moon's giant form wouldn't be obstructed.

She was a little tired. It had been about a week since she had last slept, and she had only meditated once in that time. Perhaps if the moon calmed Gaara down in the way that it did sometimes, he would be able to rest, and Fumiko could sleep.

They climbed the steps quickly when they finally reached the building, then another set soon after to get to the roof. Once they did, Gaara immediately rose himself up to the top of a statue of a fish to get the best view of his surroundings. He rose Fumiko up as well with sand, but she was only there for about five minutes before she started to squirm, so he let her back down.

Finally they were both comfortable. Fumiko was stretched out on her back, hands under her head. Cool air blew over the tiles of the roof with a dull whooshing sound that was comforting, and Fumiko simply pulled her cloak around her shoulders like a blanket.

Gaara was perched atop the fish, staring intently at the first peekings of the white moon. From here it was huge; like they were on the side of the world. In Suna, although the moonrise was beautiful, it rose from the end of the desert. This moon loomed bright and large, almost enveloping them in it's light. The moonlight danced.

As it rose higher and higher, so did Fumiko's train of thought. It was floating away from her like a helium balloon, warm and soft and relaxing. Her mind was getting fuzzy. Above her, she could see Gaara outlined against the blinding white orb in the sky. He hadn't moved in a while.

"Gaara?" she called sleepily. "Are you resting?"

..

Gaara didn't answer her. Fumiko's eyes weren't nearly sharp enough to see that he was watching the moon and her, checking over and over to see if she was asleep. She insisted on staying awake whenever Gaara was, and he didn't like that she forced herself to stay awake when she was tired. So he said nothing.

Once Fumiko was asleep, she stayed asleep. When a person slept as little as she did, their bodies had to make the absolute most out of any bit of sleep they got. So when Fumiko slept, the only things that could wake her was his Sand Sunshin and particularly rough shaking. Aside from that an explosion could go off right next to her head, and she would remain asleep.

He watched the moon. Although it made the shukaku restless, the moon always calmed Gaara. Maybe it was because it was so constant. There was just something serene about the moon; huge and pale and foreboding, but also peaceful somehow.

Hours went by. Fumiko slept on beneath him, and Gaara noted the various dark spots and craters on the moon. As the night bore on, the wind strengthened, whipping at his clothes and the chimes attached to the statue he was sitting on. He didn't worry, though. They wouldn't wake the sleeping girl.

Gaara was lost in his thoughts. He reflected on the Chuunin exams, and attacking nearly everybody once. They would all think him a monster now, even if they didn't know about the team of Genin that mysteriously went missing in the Forest of Death, he had nearly obliterated and succeeded in mutilating a comrade of theirs.

But then, he hadn't killed the green boy. His skin still pulsed uncomfortably beneath his bandages, despite the healing salve Fumiko had helped him to apply. Gaara hated feeling like an invalid, but he really had no idea how to handle wounds, and Fumiko had nursed quite a few bruises in the time he had known her. She knew her way around painkillers.

Footsteps rang. Gaara hadn't noticed them before over the chiming of the bells, but now they were unnervingly close. Gaara eyes slid instinctively from the moon to the perpetrator. It wasn't Fumiko's limping gait; so who was it?

The man from Sound. His face was bandaged heavily as it always was, probably only for the sake of identity, and his sleeves flowed almost an entire other arm length past where his hands must have been. The white puff of a scarf on his back ruffled in the breeze. Dosu. Gaara's body locked up as he approached. He tensed even further when the Genin stopped close enough to Fumiko's stretched out form to step on the corners of her hair.

"Well, well." he said. "Look at this. Don't you ever sleep at all?"

Gaara's head jerked down. His eyes narrowed. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"I was planning on attacking you as you slept. If I fight and defeat you now, then in the next round, I can battle the one I really want to face: Sasuke."

Gaara shifted. He didn't make any sudden movements.

"I already know all about your little sand attacks," he continued. "I wonder which is faster- your sand, or my sound?"

Dosu raised his sleeve to reveal the sound-controlling weapon on his wrist. It might have been Gaara's imagination. Dosu might have been simply trying to show off his weapon. He might have been about to raise it toward Gaara. But it looked suspiciously like he was aiming it in the perfect direction of Fumiko's head. Her face was still blank, mouth slightly curved in a smile from whatever dream she was having.

Gaara's eyes narrowed. This was too much.

The bells rang underneath him. Death tolls; although the Sound ninja below him had no idea of his impending demise.

Shukaku scrambled inside of him, feeding on his rage. It was times like this that Gaara was in perfect control of his demon- when he wanted it's help to destroy it rose to his will. Dosu, he told it, that one. Just for a moment.

"When the moon is full..." Gaara said quietly. His tone was black ice. He felt the sand absorbing him briefly, stretching out tired joints he never allowed to exercise. "When the moon is full... its blood boils."

No qualms. This was one death that wouldn't weigh on his conscience.

He loomed, vision spontaneously from two points of view. It was just a brief second, but he felt the shukaku's glee and fed it.

"What-" it escaped the ninja's throat in a painful-sounding tear. "Wh-what in the world are you?"

Gaara rushed him, tearing up dust on the tiled roof. He avoided Fumiko with plenty of space to spare, and her hair rustled in the new wind, but she didn't wake. The shukaku ripped and tore and the speed with which they hit smashed the foolish Genin into just so many spots of red and skin.

The second it was over Gaara slammed the lid down on his demon. He was getting better at that. The shukaku, satisfied but still whining for more, retreated into Gaara's consciousness. The sand, just as quickly as it had come, blew off of his skin into the air. It flowed back into his gourd as the dust cleared. Gaara took a few shaky breaths to pull himself back together.

Only the ninja's metal sound-maker had survived the attack, as well as the hand attached. Gaara straightened, looking down at the stain for just a moment before turning and stepping back toward the sleeping girl. She was still sleeping soundly.

He glanced around the roof, and once more at the moon. Then he knelt, sliding his arms underneath her shoulders and knees and picking her up gently. In her sleep, Fumiko curled against him, her fingers grasping his shirt, her head tucking itself into his neck. Then, she was still again.

Fumiko, despite being almost the same height as Gaara, somehow weighed less than his gourd. Gaara had done this often, a million years ago before Fumiko knew about the nightmares. He spared one more glance back at the bloody spot before shaking his head and heading back to the door that lead to the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuuki is the SI of a friend of mine on FF net, GaaraTheFifthKazekage, who just really wanted to yell at Temari.


	17. The Impossible Chakra- explained!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no italicizing. The letter's between FumiGaa and others will not be separated as such.

"Now how am I going to do this?" Fumiko wondered aloud, staring at the assortment of twenty brownies on the table before her. There were four Tupperware boxes to hold them all, and Fumiko had tried and failed to find a plastic bag or something to the like inside the house.

The hospital was a good distance away. The last thing she wanted to do was trip and fall, drop a box, or ruin any of her brownies before she could get there. Carrying them all stacked on top of one another was possible, but if the streets were crowded there could be an issue.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Gaara asked politely, but really he looked kind of antsy.

Fumiko had woken up that morning tucked into her bed, blankets and all, her prosthetic propped up against the wall closest to her. At first, she had been disoriented and confused- because hadn't they been looking at the moon?- but soon enough she had found Gaara resting against the opposite wall and realized he must have carried her home.

Of course she had pestered him with questions. Why didn't you wake me up? Why didn't you go to your room? What, are you guarding me or something? Why do you look uncomfortable? Gaara, what's wrong?

Gaara was terrible at keeping secrets; from her at least. Besides, Fumiko and Gaara didn't really have any secrets between them. Sure, Fumiko was certain he sugarcoated things sometimes or didn't reveal everything, but Fumiko did that too sometimes. But something big, like killing another ninja that had tried to attack while she slept, he would never be able to keep quiet.

Fumiko had nodded silently and dragged on her prosthetic. It was the sound ninja's own fault for attacking, and from the way it was described, it sounded like Dosu's intentions were very far from just fighting Gaara. He'd been fighting to kill or scare, either way, and hadn't realized the full extent of Gaara's power. After he explained, Gaara seemed to feel much better.

Fumiko laughed. "Aw, Gaara, you know I want you to come. But really, you can go train or whatever. I can carry these myself."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep." She hefted the pile into her hands. "Really, I'll be fine."

..

Fumiko got sidetracked by a patch of grass dotted with small, tall flowers with bright, sunshine yellow heads that she had never seen before. She unscrewed her sugar bottle, picked a few handfuls of them, and threaded the stems through the neck of the bottle. She had to leave her satchel opened so the flowers didn't get crushed, but she walked carefully.

The rest of the trip to the hospital was uneventful, save for the one root that caught her prosthetic and nearly sent her flying. Fumiko wasn't quite used to tree roots sticking up all over the road. Luckily, a boy her age with dark hair and eyes caught her brownies and then helped her to her feet, handing them back with a flourish and a bow before leaving.

The thought made her smile. People here were so much more considerate than the ones in Suna; the children there would have dumped them into the sand. Of course, the people here might act like that should they ever find out that Gaara was a jinchuriki, but it was easier to believe that they were simply kind enough to help a girl catch her brownies.

All of the Genin she was going to visit today were here.

The closest room to her was the one Zaku rested in. Before she found his room, Fumiko tracked down the nearest water dispenser and grabbed multiple paper cups, tucking the line of them under her chin so she didn't drop them. When she did find his room, she had to open it with her back.

He was fully conscious, murmuring swear words under his breath. Both of his arms were heavily bandaged and suspended in the air. Fumiko remembered the burst of blue as his attack broke through his own skin, bits flying every which way as the bugs ate away at his chakra.

"Hi," she said.

"Who the hell are you?" was his response.

She awkwardly placed her bundles on a visitor chair. "I'm Mitsuwa Fumiko. How are you doing?"

"You- what?" he muttered as Fumiko pulled out a cup and filled it with water from the pitcher by his bed. She placed it on the nightstand by Zaku's head and dropped a single yellow flower into it.

"I was there at the second exam, remember? With the sand ninjas." she said as she popped open the lid on her first Tupperware box. Pulling out a brownie neatly wrapped in a napkin, she turned. "Here."

He was confused, but eventually calmed down enough to eat and ask her a few questions about the food and the flower. She answered them all, sitting down at his bedside. She asked about his health and learned that he might never use his arms again.

When she finally left, he had stopped cursing and almost looked mildly satisfied with his lot. She hefted her boxes and cups, leaving again by pushing her back against the door to head to Misumi's room. Although he had tried to kill Kankuro, Fumiko didn't feel it was polite in the slightest to ignore him. After all, Kankuro had snapped his spine.

To him, she greeted, "Hello!"

His reaction was similar to Zaku's, only his 'who the hell are you' was written all over his face. He didn't utter a word. At first glance he looked fine, but he remained entirely still and she realized he must have had to relocate all of his bones. "How are you feeling?"

She left a flower and a brownie on his nightstand. He wasn't very talkative, although he did scowl when she told him she was with the sand ninjas.

"Kankuro knew he wasn't going to kill you, I swear," she had tried, but Misumi was having none of it.

Next was Hinata. Fumiko was actually kind of worried about her- after all, the last time she had seen her, Hinata had been going into cardiac arrest without a pulse. It was amazing she was even alive. Her room was at the end of a long hallway.

Fumiko headed down the hall to her room, moving a little quickly because she was starting to lose her grip on the boxes and the cups were starting to drop and this floor must have just been waxed because her prosthetic was starting to slide. She was almost there, about to turn to open the door-

Fumiko didn't really register much but a flash of wood, a sudden startling pain in her right eye, and then she was on the floor. It really had just been waxed, she thought dazedly. Her boxes were scattered around her along with almost ten cups rolling in every direction. The flowers, thankfully, were uncrushed.

"Heh? Who the heck?"

"Ow," Fumiko said, touching at her eye. She couldn't open it.

"Naruto!" a familiar voice chided. Sakura. "Be careful! Are you okay?"

"Hey, you're the girl who was standing next to that weirdo Gaara all the time!" Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed, suddenly defensive. "What are you doing here? Is Gaara here? What's up with you!"

Fumiko looked at him through one eye, the other gently covered with her hand. He had one hand on the doorknob and was staring down at her. Sakura was just beginning to step out of the room, finger raised accusingly at Uzumaki Naruto.

"Um... brownies," Fumiko said, still surprised. The door must have opened- she had run straight into it. "And... flowers?"

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled again, whacking him over the head. "You're so dense!" Then, she reached down to help her up. Uzumaki Naruto snapped out of it, and seemed to suddenly realize that he had knocked Fumiko sprawling along with all of her stuff.

"Oh! Sorry!" he said good-naturedly but abrasively, gathering her things. "Hey! Are these brownies?"

"Yeah," Fumiko laughed as Sakura hauled her to her feet. Her prosthetic skidded a little but Fumiko regained her balance quickly. "So much for not dropping them. You can have one, if you want."

Sakura carefully pulled Fumiko's hand away from her face and hissed breath between her teeth, looking at Fumiko's eyes.

"Um," she said nervously, "is Gaara here?"

"No," she said. "Why?"

"Your eye," Sakura said. "It's turning a little green."

"What? a black eye?" Fumiko yelped. The she laughed. "I guess I'm gonna cover that later..."

"Hey, these are really good!"

"Oh!" Fumiko said, pulling slightly away from Sakura's steady hand. "Oh, wait, those are for the people who are injured! Thank you, but don't eat too many."

"Oh," Naruto said, disappointed. He handed the boxes of brownies back to her as well as the messily shoved back together paper cups. Then he looked at her scrutinizingly. Fumiko was still slipping a little on the waxed floors. "So are you really friends with that freaky kid Gaara?"

"Yeah," she said. "He's honestly not so bad. How's Hinata?"

"Conscious," Sakura answered for him. "We were just about to leave, but we just visited her."

"That's good," Fumiko said, shifting the boxes in her arms. "I'll let you go now. I still have a whole bunch of people to see, so bye! Maybe I'll see you later, Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura," she said, walking back and pushing her back against the door. "Nice to finally meet you."

..

Hinata's room was empty save for a bed, a chair, and a heart-monitor. There was still a pitcher of water, though, on the chair. Fumiko said about filling a cup and dropping the flower inside of it. Behind her, Hinata laid still, but her eyes were watching.

"H-hello," she said weakly when Fumiko greeted. "Wh-who are you?"

"I'm Fumiko," she said, handing her a wrapped brownie. She looked at it for a second before glancing shyly back up at Fumiko.

"Th-that's a pretty flower," she said. Fumiko beamed.

"Thank you!"

..

Kin had already been released, so Fumiko had to settle with skipping her and going to Chouji's room. He yelled a lot about her being friends with Gaara, but quieted instantly when Fumiko handed him a brownie. When she turned to arrange his flower, he continued to speak with his mouth full of brownie.

"Mmm! This is almost as good as barbeque! There's no way you can be evil too; evil people can't cook this good!"

Fumiko didn't quite know what being evil or not had to do with one's culinary ability, but she decided to simply take it as a double compliment. She turned back around and smiled at him. "Gaara's not evil. Thank you."

..

She didn't spend the longest time in Yoroi's room. He seemed to take pleasure in her discomfort, but she couldn't stop thinking about the way he had laughed over Sasuke's pain. Still, everyone needed sweets every now and then when they were hospitalized, no matter how bitter they were.

He completely ignored her brownie, however, and it stayed on his nightstand the whole visit, next to the flower.

..

After that unsettling encounter, she took it a little bit farther and went to visit Sasuke next.

When she pushed open the door- her load was getting considerably lighter as she went around, but she still had to push the door open with her back- there was an immediate disgruntled noise. Apparently Sasuke wasn't fond of strangers.

"How are you?" Fumiko asked conversationally as she pulled the yellow flower out of her satchel. She actually did realize that he had a breathing mask on his mouth but the irritated look on his face led her to believe he didn't like looking anything less than invincible.

"Fine," he said shortly. His breath fogged the mask.

He couldn't really eat the brownie even if he'd wanted to, which he didn't, so Fumiko left it on his bedside table next to the flower. He looked at it scornfully, like the bright little plant was a personal insult. Given his dark appearance, she could see why; but she knew he probably wasn't really so much offended as he was confused. When she explained she was a friend of Gaara's, he seemed to nod.

His eyes followed her almost curiously for the rest of the visit.

..

Kiba commented on her black eye before she was even fully inside of his room.

She found it wasn't empty, either- Shino was there. The telltale buzzing sound of his bugs made her a little nervous, but she swallowed it down and shut the door behind her. Fumiko was almost out of brownies- just ten left, but that would be plenty.

"Uzumaki Naruto opened a door and I ran into it," she explained.

"I barely noticed. What, are you an insomniac or something?"

Fumiko smiled. "You could say that."

She handed both him and Shino a brownie. Shino might have been bemused, but he kept on a carefully neutral expression. She could have figured it out by his eyes, had she been able to see them at all. Shino picked at it politely and Kiba munched on his as Fumiko set up a flower.

"So, where's your leg?" he asked tactlessly. Fumiko startled.

"That's... a really good question." she said slowly as she realized she didn't know. Just what had her mother done with the limb after she amputated it? Fumiko would have to ask her when she got back. Or perhaps Gaara knew. "I'll get back to you on that."

Kiba snorted. "Maybe I should be more specific. What happened to your leg?"

"I can't really share," Fumiko said.

"Kiba," Shino warned quietly, but Fumiko only laughed.

"I'm not sad or too traumatized to talk about it or anything bitter like that." she said. "It's just that it involves... someone else as well and he'd rather not talk about it."

"Wait," Kiba said suddenly, almost shrinking. "You're the girl from the forest of death!"

Shino didn't move but his gaze was suddenly intense.

Fumiko knew it had been these two and Hinata who had been hiding behind the bushes, but she had been kind of hoping they had forgotten about it; or not gotten a good enough look to recognize her. But of course, Kiba had that amazing sense of smell. He must have sniffed at her or something.

"Yeeaaahhh..." she said, smiling sheepishly. "Before you say anything, I swear he isn't so bad once you get to know him."

..

Ten ten was wide awake, and very pleasant, at that.

"Oh! So they're releasing you?" Fumiko asked. She handed the brownie to her.

"Yeah. It honestly wasn't so bad. The jolt to my spine knocked me out, is all. My back is killing me but I'll be fine as soon as I can get up and moving again." she frowned. "Sitting around all day with nothing to do is killing me. Wow, this is pretty good!" Ten ten exclaimed, taking a bite of brownie. "Did you make these?"

"Yep. When are you getting out?"

"Just as soon as Neji comes to get me. Thank you," she said as she watched Fumiko set the flower on her stand. "You didn't have to do this."

"No big deal. Besides, Gaara and Kankuro and Temari are all training. And," she said quickly, catching Ten ten's dark look. "Temari is very, very sorry."

She had not said as much, but Fumiko improvised.

"Have you been to see Lee yet?" Ten ten asked her.

"No. I'm going to see him right after I leave, though," Fumiko answered. "Have you heard anything about him yet?"

"Just that he's alive. And Gai-sensei told me about Lee's... condition."

Fumiko felt a little sad when she said that. "I'm... really sorry about that. If I could do anything to help I would. I'm so, so sorry."

Ten ten took a breath, then forced a smile. "I know. But Lee is... he's very stubborn. He's not going to accept it."

..

Lee wasn't conscious. The medics told her it would probably be another day or two before he was.

His was actually a closer room than any of the others' had been. Fumiko hated to admit it to herself, but deep down she knew the reason she hadn't gone to his room first was because she was nervous. What if he had been awake? How would he cope with the friend of his murderous attacker visiting him with brownies and flowers?

Quietly, she adjusted the flower on Lee's bedside table. She was almost out of flowers.

Next to the cup she put the brownie tied up in its napkin.

Lee was completely peaceful, but his arm was in a cast and there were bandages all over him. His skin was decorated with cuts and scrapes and dark bruises, and his face as he slept on was young and blank.

Her leg was beginning to hurt from all the walking around, so she took a moment to sit down in the guest chair. Familiar pins and needles pricked her stump, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been two days before when they'd finally left the second exam arena.

Fumiko wondered how Gaara was doing. He hadn't particularly specified whether or not he was going to train with the Sand Siblings, but most likely he was somewhere in the woods alone, meditating; his sand swirling around him in lazy clumps as he made enough peace within himself to further command it.

The door opened suddenly, making Fumiko jump up. The first person to enter was Ten ten, and Fumiko relaxed immediately. Neji followed close behind.

"Hey! Fumiko greeted. "Out already?"

"Neji came in practically right after you," Ten ten said. She glanced sadly at Lee. "How is he?"

"Okay, so far as I can tell. He doesn't move."

"Who are you?" Neji said coldly.

"Oh, right, hello. I'm Mitsuwa Fumiko."

He watched her carefully. His face was passive but there was an intensity about it that made it clear that it was his equivalent of a scowl.

Fumiko just continued to smile. All it meant was that he was thinking of Gaara and her connection to him- a lot of people scowled when they thought about that, be it villagers or ninja or parents or distrustful friends.

"Why did you bring a weed?" he said scathingly. Fumiko blinked.

"What- what?"

"A weed," he said impatiently, jerking his eyes towards her yellow flower. "Why did you bring a weed?"

"Neji!" Ten ten said sharply.

"A weed?" she asked. "But its not dried up or dead. It's so pretty. It's actually green and yellow. I thought it was a flower."

"It's a dandelion."

"Oh well."

"Why are you crippled?"

Fumiko blinked once before answering. "Exploding tags."

"Who?"

"Can't say."

He eyes were hard and flickered across her face, searching for weaknesses. "A villager who can't even walk properly. Weak, even without such a disability. You're too kind for your own good, aren't you? No striking features, not even notable. You shouldn't be so far away from home, Suna villager."

Ten ten elbowed him. But Fumiko held his gaze. She recognized his tone of voice, and his words. She continued to smile.

"You can never be too kind."

His eyes narrowed slightly. His pupils seemed to almost dance. Although his byakugan wasn't activated, Fumiko was sure he was privy to every thought going through her mind. However, there wouldn't be much to find- she was completely comfortable under his scrutiny. She straightened.

"My name," she said, "is Mitsuwa Fumiko. I am twelve years old and am missing half a leg. I am from the village hidden in the sand, and am traveling with the Sand Siblings. I don't like fighting, am barely adequate at taijutsu and cannot perform jutsus although I do like Genjutsu. I am an artist, a baker, and I really hate bitter thoughts. Gaara is my best friend and he isn't evil." Fumiko continued to smile at his penetrating glare. "If you want to you can use your byakugan. I've got nothing to hide at all."

Before Ten ten could protest, his eyes turned white. Veins throbbed around them.

Up close, she could see that they really were more defined this way. It felt like they could see her, through her, and into her mind at the same time as it could see past her. Fumiko stared straight at them, helpfully jumping from thought to thought so he could see more. Neji's eyes didn't waver or move, just stared her down.

Suddenly they widened.

His face twisted slightly, dumbfounded.

"Neji? Neji!" Ten ten was saying. Fumiko realized that while she had been watching his byakugan, the world had momentarily blanked.

"What are you?" He said in a low voice. "How are you doing it?"

"Sorry?"

"What are you?" He repeated ferociously. His byakugan faded.

"Um, human?" She answered uncertainly.

Just at that moment, the door burst open for a second time. Lee's sensei Gai appeared, though he seemed more subdued than usual. He stopped as soon as he saw the three of them.

"Neji? Ten ten?"

"Your gates." Neji said. His voice was low but furious. "How are you doing it?"

Now Fumiko was confused. "Doing what?"

"Neji?" His sensei asked again. "What's wrong?"

Ten ten pulled him aside, whispering rapid words that Fumiko- although it embarrassed her- listened in on. Just what was she doing?

"Neji, what's wrong with you?" she demanded.

"Her gates." Neji said. "All eight of them are open!"

..

"What- what are you saying?" Temari exclaimed. Her entire body betrayed her distress. Kankuro's face was hard.

Gaara himself was shocked. He was leaned against the wall, arms crossed, staring intensely at Baki. His former sensei's face wasn't quite troubled, but it was taut. Gaara couldn't believe it- betray Konoha? Was that what Baki had brought them here for? Gaara actually had wanted to become a Chuunin, if only to prove himself. But this- this was madness.

"That is the plan." Baki said again. "You will follow it."

"But- to slaughter everyone?" she asked, quieter this time. "Everyone- even the children?"

"It will be done."

Gaara was silent.

After Fumiko had left, Gaara had gone to an outskirts of the forest outside of Konoha to meditate quietly and alone. However, he had only been there for a few hours before Kankuro and Temari had crashed into the undergrowth looking for him, saying that Baki had something important to tell them.

After a few more moments of heated discussion, Temari stormed out of the hallway, and Kankuro followed her.

Gaara made to leave. His head was spinning. How was he going to explain this all to Fumiko? Before he could pass, Baki gripped his shoulder. Sort of. It was more like he gripped the layer of sand that sprang up an inch or so away from his shoulder. Gaara stiffened.

"Gaara," Baki said. "You can not, under any circumstances, tell Fumiko about this."

"Why not?"

"She would never allow it."

..

"Gates?" Fumiko said. "What are those? Wait- are these the same gates Lee was going on about?"

"The fourth gate: Gate of Life- open!"

Gai looked disturbed. "Are you sure, Neji?"

"My byakugan doesn't lie," he said. "I don't know how she's even alive."

"Excuse me," Fumiko said. "But what are you talking about?"

"Gates are like- chakra regulators," Ten ten explained quickly. "They control the amount of chakra used. There are eight gates- the gate of opening, the gate of energy, the gate of life, the gate of pain, the forest gate, the gate of viewing, the gate of insanity, and the gate of death. But using them overwhelms your body, and if you open the eighth gate, you die. Or at least..." she hesitated. "You're supposed to."

"Chakra regulators?" Fumiko asked. She remembered the first time she had tried a jutsu and the visit to the medic-nin right after that. "But- but I don't have any chakra regulation! I never have!"

"What do you mean?" Gai asked seriously.

"It's why I can't do jutsus," Fumiko elaborated. "I can't control my chakra barely at all."

Neji's byakugn throbbed to life again. "Gai-sensei. She doesn't have any more chakra in her body than any average ninja."

"But you said her gates were open!"

"They are," he replied, staring her down.

Fumiko glanced down at herself, like she would suddenly see whatever it was that Neji saw inside of her. "I don't understand."

..

"You say that like she could stop me." Gaara said shortly. "Like she could stop any of us."

Baki narrowed his visible eye. "She could stop you."

..

Before she left, Fumiko tried to give Neji a brownie. He stared at it like she was offering him a head. Gai, however, happily accepted it.

She couldn't wait to tell Gaara. Quickly Fumiko gathered her things, then pushed back against the door to leave. Then. she paused, and glanced back at Neji.

"Hey. By the way, Neji..."

He glared over at her. She waited until it died down to a sort of angry curiosity. "What?"

"Is a flower really better than a weed?"

..

She disappeared after that. Neji was left staring at the wooden door. He could hear her clacking footsteps on the floor outside in the hall. She was moving rather slowly, struggling with the shameful prosthetic she wore despite not having lost her leg honorably and in battle.

Neji was momentarily startled.

This girl- Fumiko- showed no fear. In the brief second he had looked into her before noticing the gates, he had seen just enough to pin her as unbelievable.

No fear. That was the first thing. She was happy to expose her thoughts to him, that much was clear, and wasn't at all intimidated. She was disturbed over his words to Hinata, about his thoughts on the dandelion, but she was happy to make friends, happy to lug herself around to every sickbed in the hospital like a common maid. She thought- briefly, she thought- about something from her past, something about Gaara, wondering if he could be accepted.

"Is a flower really better than a weed?"

..

"Gaara!" Fumiko called as soon as she ripped the door open. "Gaara, hey Gaara! I have something to tell you!"

There was a thump from Gaara's bedroom, then Gaara himself poked his head out. His eyes twitched slightly. "What- Fumiko, why are you yelling?"

"Sorry," she said breathlessly, because she had sort of hobbled/ran/slipped all the way back from the hospital.

The ninja had puzzled over the situation for what seemed like hours. Even afterwards, they really had no idea what to make of it, although Fumiko had learned a bit more about her irregular chakra and the reason behind it. She was an impossible feat.

"Who?" Gaara said stonily and suddenly. "Why do you have a black eye?"

"I ran into a door."

"Fumiko."

"Okay, so somebody opened the door, but I still ran into it."

Fumiko dropped her stuff quickly on the kitchen table. Three empty boxes and one with five brownies remaining. She also gently dropped the remaining six dandelions on the table, deciding to put them in a vase later after she told Gaara the news.

They sat in his bedroom.

"Okay, so, remember how I don't have chakra control?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Well, now I know why..."

..

Dear mom,

I learned something interesting today. I don't know if you know what this means, but a shinobi here in Konoha told me that all of my inner gates are opened. Which is actually supposed to be very impossible- I should be dead.

Do you know anything about this?

With love,

Fumiko

PS: After you amputated my leg, what did you do with it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you know: a bit gets explained in this chapter. If you want it explained farther, PM or review me. If not, then you'll find out later... it was an idea that my friend Lily came up with, actually. I was explaining about how Fumiko had no chakra control, and she said, "Wait, that kind of sounds like..."
> 
> She is very much capable of explaining anything. Extensive knowledge of just about any topic, actually, whether it's about a real-life thing or an anime. Very scientific. Likes things to make sense.
> 
> I love the idea and have further developed it for my purpose. I very much like the idea.


	18. The Shadowed Moon

"Gaara. Stop it. I'm fine."

"But-"

"Gaara." A laugh bubbled out of Fumiko's lips. "Just because you only now found out all my gates are open, doesn't mean it's suddenly gonna kill me! I was fine yesterday and I'll be fine today. You're being silly."

Gaara frowned. After explaining what she knew about the gates- which admittedly, wasn't much- and her unusual... condition, he had taken to following her around and freezing every time she stumbled. Like he thought she was just going to drop dead.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll ask a medic-nin while I'm at the hospital." she said, picking up the plastic bag she had finally dug out of the pantry. It had more dandelions and a bit of the paperwork crammed inside that the medic-nin at the front desk had given to her. "Though, they might just want to study me..." She laughed again.

Fumiko had signed up to volunteer at the hospital. Gaara was going to be training quite a bit, along with the other Sand Siblings, and Fumiko hadn't planned on being in Konoha for an entire month. She needed something to do- so why not help the people in Konoha while she was here? It was the least she could do.

She also wanted to talk to Lee. The curl of nervousness in her stomach was ridiculous- she would apologize and give him another dandelion. Lee didn't really seem like an angry person, not that she had even met him yet.

..

The trek was less exciting than it had been the first time. Fumiko was beginning to watch out for roots and miscellaneous branches and stones that could trip her, and she carried only a plastic bag around her wrist. Humming happily to herself, Fumiko swung the bag jauntily. She greeted a few people and was greeted back.

The air was thick and moist, which made Fumiko a little homesick for the dry, thin, warm air of the desert that perpetually tasted like sand. This air was almost heavy in her lungs, and while it was not unpleasant, it wasn't like home. Fumiko had yet to receive a letter from either of her parents- but the messenger hawk could take awhile sometimes and besides, Fumiko wasn't so sure she would want one from her father.

The buildings here were different as well. Unlike the baked clay abodes of Suna, these houses were made mostly of wood and stone, painted bright, cheery colors. In the opposite of Suna, Konoha seemed mismatched and disorganized, houses and shops scattered randomly. In Suna, everything was artfully neat, organized into high buildings and tight streets. Shops there lined the streets.

Suna must have more people, and less space. Here, all a person needed to do was level out a bit more of the forest, and they could remain spread out. In Suna, to stretch the village too far into the desert could cause problems. The closer one lived to a water source, the better.

Fumiko approached the hospital. She hadn't been inside since the first time she had visited, and she had been busy at the apartment for the last few days, making it more homey. Flowers were added, and there was paper and an easel in her room now.

It was cold inside. Fumiko wasn't at all used to air conditioning, although she was used to the cold. It was always muggy in Konoha, though- warm unless you were inside. It was the oddest thing.

"Hello," the nin at the front desk greeted politely. "May I help you?"

"Yep," Fumiko said. "I filled out a few volunteer papers; could you help me with that? I'm not sure what to do exactly…"

"A volunteer?" the lady asked, looking up at Fumiko almost respectfully. "Goodness. We don't get very many more of those, lately. I'm afraid a lot of the shinobi here can't bother themselves, and the villagers don't know anything about medicines aside from the fact that they help people."

"My mother is a medic-nin," Fumiko said with a smile. "I help her sometimes. I know the basics at least. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to help out while I'm in Konoha."

"Are you only visiting?" she asked when Fumiko placed the papers on the counter.

"Yes, I'm from Suna."

"Here for the Chuunin exams?" she asked conversationally as she looked over Fumiko's forms. The nametag she sported said Miyoka. Miyoka was a thin woman, sitting behind her desk, with a round face and dark hair.

"No, ma'am. I'm here to support my friends."

"Such a good girl. I wish we had more young folk like you here in Konoha."

"Thank you; although I'm sure there are plenty of nice people here."

"Hmph! You would think so." Miyoka muttered under her breath, then handed Fumiko back her papers with a kindly smile. "Here you go. If you go upstairs to room 265, you can find your schedule and some necessary supplies."

"Thank you! Oh- here," she said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a dandelion. The lady smiled brightly at her and tucked the stem into a vase of slightly wilting roses. "It's a dandelion."

"Thank you, dear."

Fumiko turned and glanced around for the stairs, which were tucked into the corner of a hallway straight right from where Fumiko was standing. She waved to Miyoka and left. She didn't get very far before she heard an, "Oh!"

Fumiko turned back to Miyoka. "Yes?"

"Um- um- nothing, dear."

..

'Necessary supplies' turned out to be a surgical mask, latex gloves, and a thin apron, two of which she tucked into the bag. She scooped out the flowers and placed them on top. Fumiko only needed the apron and mask for certain patients, according to her schedule, but she slid on the gloves.

To her delight, Lee was at the very end of her list. The fact that he was included at all was great, and because she was released after that, she could stay behind to speak with him. Most of the people she was going to visit today were strangers, although she would see Zaku again.

She folded her schedule and stuck it into her satchel in between her brushes and her sugar bottle before heading out. From what she had seen in the basket of schedules, there was only her and two others volunteering at all this month.

She made her way to the first room, which held an old injured courier shinobi by the name of Taketomo Yoshihisa. He had been injured by a few rogue-nin while delivering a parcel, or so his description said.

He was a cheerful man that had a loud, deep laugh and a quick sense of humor. Naturally, the two got along very well.

"Ha. You really did that?" Fumiko exclaimed while she unwrapped the slightly red bandages from his stomach. "I don't know about ninjutsus much, but I didn't think you could make them clean your house!"

"Clones, sweetheart. They're like magic."

Fumiko examined the neat row of stitches across his abdomen. "This is gonna leave quite a scar." She ran her fingers over it. "But it's a pretty clean cut. Your report said you got hit with a sword, yeah?"

He told his story while Fumiko cleaned the area around the stitches efficiently. She also injected a small amount of numbing painkillers, as was written in her instructions. She knew how to do this. When she finished, Fumiko rewrapped it with fresh bandages and dumped the old ones into the sanitary disposal can.

"You're pretty good at this. How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm twelve. My mom is a medic-nin."

"But no ninjutsu? Wouldn't that be faster?"

Fumiko laughed good-naturedly. "I can't use jutsus. My gates are all wacky."

..

Fumiko fluffed the pillows of a young Genin who had been mildly poisoned by practice blades. He sniffled and coughed a lot, and Fumiko made him swallow something green and bad-smelling. When he stuck out his tongue, Fumiko offered him some of her sugar, which he happily accepted.

"Do you always carry sugar?"

"Yep."

"That's a great idea!"

Fumiko laughed and high-fived him.

..

"Hello!"

"Who are you?" a rough voice snapped. "You aren't my nurse."

"My name is Mitsuwa Fumiko. I'm a volunteer. Would you like a dandelion?"

"No. You're too young to be working in a hospital."

Fumiko understood why he was acting so bitter. The poor man had been in a probably career-ending accident- well, not so much an accident as an assassination attempt. Someone- and nobody was sure yet quite who- had left explosive tags in his doorway.

The right side of his face was mutilated, almost melted. He had lost a few fingers on one hand and most of his right arm, which he had been using to open the door. His skin was still an angry shade of red, his bandages still bleeding red, and in some cases, pus. It must have been incredibly painful- a pain Fumiko had once felt on a smaller scale. Shintaro Togai, a forty-eight year old Chuunin, would no longer be eligible for most missions.

"I'm qualified. My mother is a medic-nin."

"That doesn't mean anything." He scowled, face tight with pain.

"I'm sorry. Here, let me help you. I'll put some more morphine in your drip, okay?"

He frowned at her the entire time she prepared the painkiller, hooking it onto a pole and connecting the needle before carefully inserting it into the thin, clear tube that ran his saline. In a few moments his face relaxed slightly.

"I need to change your bandages." Fumiko said sympathetically. "The morphine should help, but can you please stay still while I'm cleaning out your burns?"

"What? They're letting you touch me?"

"Well..." She smiled. "Yeah. I've done it before."

He snorted. "Yeah, right. A twelve year old dress the stub of a man's arm?"

"Well," she began, "Maybe not an arm, but I have done a leg."

It was true. Plenty of times she had changed her own bandages, dressed and cleaned her own wounds as her mother taught her to. She was as familiar with a stump of skin and bones as she was with advil.

"When?"

"Ironically enough, when my leg was blown off by explosive tags." Fumiko laughed a little at the memory- Gaara had almost always been at her house during that time, hovering but not sure exactly what to do. Often he had his bear. That was when they had become best friends- when somebody helps you clean the blood off your leg stump, that's it. You were close forever.

He stared. "What?"

Fumiko leaned against the wall and lifted up her leg to show him the prosthetic. "See? It's a long story. I'll tell you while I do your bandages, okay?"

She left out some parts, like the jinchuriki and the identity of the attacker. Those things were private to Gaara and she wasn't about to blab it to the entire hospital. But she told him about the attack and Gaara's power over the sand and how she survived as she cleaned out his burns. Togai winced every now and again, however, he remained still throughout the process.

"I can't really remember much of it, but Gaara was running around the village trying to find somebody who would help. My parents had told me not to come home so he didn't bring me home until there was nowhere else to go, but I guess my dad hadn't really meant it. My mom amputated the dead limb. More got taken off over time because of nerve damage and other stuff like that, but I'm fine now."

"What's up with this Gaara kid? Why didn't anybody like him?" he asked curiously despite himself.

"I still can't tell you. But the village doesn't like us at all; not really."

"So you didn't go to the hospital?"

"No- I just stayed home. My mom brought painkillers and stuff for me. Although," she said as she wrapped a clean white bandage over his eye, "I did go to the hospital a lot later to get my prosthetic fitted."

"That's rough, squirt."

"Not really. It's because of all that I'm friends with Gaara now."

"Hmph." he huffed, but he was smiling on one side of his face by now. "I'll have to meet this Gaara sometime. He seems like quite the person, from the way you described him."

"He is. I don't know if he'll come here, but if he does, I'll make sure to introduce you two."

When she finally left- "No, really, I have more patients to see"- he stopped her before she could.

"Yeah?"

"Can I have that dandelion?"

Fumiko grinned widely. "Of course."

..

"Zaku!"

"Fumiko?"

"I'm volunteering at the hospital."

"Another flower?"

"Of course."

She unwrapped, cleaned, and rewrapped his arms. Luckily and miraculously, he was beginning to gain some of the feeling in them, according to his reports.

"The food here stinks," he told her. She offered him sugar. He declined. "No- nobody eats pure sugar."

..

The rest of the afternoon whirled by. She met a lot of people, most barely injured with colds or various other sicknesses, some with broken bones, and few like Togai with serious injuries. Most of them liked her, some didn't. A few she had helped walk around the hospital for exercise.

When the time finally rolled around to visit Lee, she was suddenly completely calm. No more worry. If he couldn't forgive Gaara, well, she was used to that. If he could, it would be awesome. Either way they would be fine.

He was wide awake when she pushed the door open. For a second, he didn't look at her.

"Ten ten, I told you, I am fine!"

"Um... I'm not Ten ten." Fumiko corrected gently.

He flinched like he recognized her voice- which he very well might have; She had been yelling a lot during his and Gaara's fight- and glanced over at her. Instantly his expression was guarded.

"Oh. Hello."

Fumiko didn't say anything. She wasn't specifically authorized to help him with his bandages, because even though she was qualified for most things, completely crushed limbs were not one of them. She supposed that was because the people Gaara attacked never survived, so she never got the chance to help with those kinds of wounds.

Instead she helped him to get more comfortable, administering morphine, helping him to the restroom- because he absolutely refused to use a bedpan- and finally settling down beside him on a visitor's chair. She had been standing most of the time again, and he watched suspiciously as she scratched at the space where her skin and the metal met.

"You're a good fighter," she said to break the tension. He only watched her. "I mean. Did you know you're the first person that ever hurt him at all? Physically, I mean. It was... amazing. I think you scared him."

"By 'amazing' do you mean that I frightened you?"

"Ha. Yeah, a little. I have to admit that I didn't think he could be hurt."

He looked away, staring up at the ceiling. Although he seemed still, his entire demeanor screamed that he wanted to move, to run, to do something other than lie there like the invalid that he was. His arm was wrapped tightly in a sling.

"I'm sorry." Fumiko said.

"It is alright." he said, tightly. "Gaara was the worthier opponent. I cannot say that he should not have injured me like he did. Gaara was stronger, and so he won. I thought I would, but... perhaps with more training I will be better."

Fumiko watched him. She remembered what Ten ten had said-

"Lee is... he's very stubborn. He's not going to accept it."

"You know, they are telling me that I cannot be a shinobi anymore."

"Hm." Fumiko looked outside through the sliding glass window. Grass shifted in the wind. The sun shined. "I don't know how they could possibly know that."

"Huh?" He looked at her.

"Honestly I don't know how they know that."

"I cannot fight."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Definitely not right now." Fumiko sighed, then smiled softly. "Look. I'm similar to you in some ways. I can't be a shinobi due to a injury I got a long time ago. But I still know Genjutsu and things like that- if I wanted to, I could fight, I guess. The difference is that you want to fight and you're good at it. I'm just a painter. You might not be the best shinobi ever, but you can be a good one."

"An injury?" he seemed surprised by her words but didn't refer to any more than that. "Do you mean your prosthesis?"

"I do."

"And Neji informed me about your... gates."

"Don't worry. I'm not very strong or a genius or anything like that. It's a..." she paused, then laughed. "Actually, I don't know what it is. I just found out myself. Pretty freaky, huh?"

"Yes."

"Do you... want a flower?"

"A dandelion?"

"Yep- did Neji think at all about what I said?"

"Huh?"

Fumiko giggled. "I guess he didn't. But, do you want a flower?"

"It is unusual for someone to give a hospitalized person a dandelion," Lee said as she poured a paper cup of water for the plant. "They are not often considered as flowers."

"There aren't many flowers in Suna that aren't grown in greenhouses," Fumiko said. "And they're all green. Weeds to us is dried out yellowish grass that blows all over the place and stings your feet. So this is a flower to me."

"Suna must be a barren place," Lee commented. He was sitting up now, unable to lie down.

"Not really. I love it there. It's so different from here... the air is dry and warm, the buildings are tall and rounded and specialized. There's sand everywhere, big piles of it blown up against the sides of houses and all across the roads. Kind of like the leaves are here. It's really really hot during the day and freezing at night. The streets are always super crowded with shops and people."

"I thought you said you loved it there."

"It's great!"

"I do not understand you."

..

Another hour and Lee was restless, staring outside.

"Stop moving."

"But! The Youthful cannot stay still for so long!"

"Stay still long enough for me to take out the IV, at least."

"Youthfulness cannot be contain- what?"

Fumiko slid the IV's out of Lee's arm. First the saline. Then she removed the morphine drip from the tubes and carefully stopped the liquid flow.

Who was she to stop him? Lee would be up and moving soon enough with or without her help, and Fumiko figured it would be better for her to do it than for him to hurt himself by trying to get out of bed without knowing the proper way to remove his medical supports. When he was stood and steady, she adjusted his sling.

"You can't leave. What do you want to do?"

"Train."

..

"Lee, are you certain pushups are a good idea?" Fumiko asked. "You need both of your injured limbs for that."

"No. I can do it with one arm and one leg."

"Alright. Let's do this."

"'Let's'?"

Fumiko gingerly knelt beside Lee, digging her prosthetic into the dirt to keep it from sliding. "I've never done pushups before. I'll join you."

..

Gaara stared at the tree directly across from him. He was unused to all these trees, all this green. It was hard to focus without the comforting whirl of sand always battering through the air- here, the only thing that battered at him was a leaf that splatted unexpectedly against the side of his face. He barely felt it, but it startled him.

Not that he would have been able to focus on meditating anyway.

Keeping secrets from someone that was practically you was mentally and physically exhausting.

One had to be careful smiling, especially when they didn't smile often. Gaara had to react to things, questions, curious comments on all sides. How was your day? How was your training? Where's Baki and Kankuro and Temari? Do you want anything to eat? Have you rested at all?

He felt awful. Since when did he become so good at lying to Fumiko? Probably the only reason he succeeded at all was that she was excited about volunteering at the hospital, and therefore bustled about collecting flowers and signing papers. He also pretended to rest often. But still, he was already tired of it. How did Baki expect him to do this for an entire month? And what would she say when she finally found out?

"Gaara, Kankuro, Temari." Baki said quietly, leaning against the tree Gaara was staring at. "Let's go over the plan again."

...

"One hundred and eighty seven, one hundred and eighty eight-"

Fumiko panted. She sat cross-legged next to Lee, sweaty and distinctly aware of her feeble strength. That was okay, though. Fumiko was willowy like her grandmother, fragile and small, not particularly strong. She was used to that. She had tried, though. Fifteen had been her limit, but Lee seemed to have no limit.

"One hundred and eighty... nine!"

"Lee, maybe you should stop now," Fumiko suggested, seeing the taut pain on Lee's face. His arm shook. In fact, his entire body shook and he was wincing. Sweat plinked into the dirt like raindrops. "Your friends are here anyway."

"Two hundred pushups; that was the deal." he managed. "If I cannot finish them than it is one hundred leg squats."

"Okay." she said resolutely. "Again. I can do a few more."

He waited for her.

"Let's count together," Fumiko said. Lee looked back to the ground.

"One hundred and ninety." Fumiko said with him, dipping low to the ground. Her arms protested, but she ignored them. After all, his ideals were good. This was something personal that she didn't quite understand yet- just like Gaara's deep-rooted desire to prove himself to the people that hated him. Just like Fumiko's drive to paint something that meant something.

Lee was stuck, pushing as hard as he could but his arm would not rise.

"Come on, Lee."

Finally, his shaking body lifted.

"Lee! You shouldn't be out of bed!" a nurse cried. "Stop it! What do you think your doing?"

"One ninety one!" they said. It was an odd mix of tones- his was reedy and low, hers lilting and soft.

The nurse put a hand on Lee's shoulder. "Lee-"

"Keep away from me!" he snapped, glaring up at her before returning to his pushups. "Please! Got to... finish my training!"

"Let him try," Fumiko said. Her breath came in puffs. She smiled at the nurse over Lee's back, who was flinched away. "He has to... try."

The nurse stared helplessly as Lee continued. Four pushups later, Fumiko's prosthetic slid and she smacked onto the dirt painfully, chin whacking onto the hard soil. It wasn't anything new, though- add a little sand to the ground and she might have done it a thousand times before.

"One ninety-.. five!"

Fumiko pushed herself to her hands and knees, arms quaking slightly. She couldn't finish it. She wasn't sure if Lee would, either, so she stayed close enough to help should he fail. Two kunoichi stood close behind- Sakura and Ino, both holding flowers. Lee didn't appear to notice.

His breath came in spurts and ragged bouts, and he groaned in pain as he dipped again. "One ninety... six... One ninety... seven. One ninety... eight." Fumiko couldn't exactly tell what he was thinking through his squinted eyes. "Do not count me out yet. I am not... finished."

"Almost there." Fumiko said encouragingly.

He dipped, almost fell, panted, and rose again. "One... ninety... nine! Just one... more. Just one more!"

"One more, Lee." she repeated, smiling. But she moved her hands just slightly so that she would be able to catch him or at least take his imminent fall off of his injured arm. Maybe he would make it. Maybe he wouldn't. Either way, he was about to collapse.

"One... more... augghh!"

Fumiko caught him swiftly around his shoulder and under his chest to keep his arm from hitting the dirt. His knee bumped against the ground but otherwise, was already lying against the floor from his pushups. She looked at his face as the two kunoichi came running. Lee was unconscious.

"You can take him back now." Fumiko said to the nurse, who had knelt at Lee's side. Fumiko rolled him over onto his back gently, setting his head down slowly enough to keep from waking him again.

"I'll go get some orderlies with a stretcher." the nurse said hurriedly and stood. "You three stay with him until I get back!"

..

They moved him back into his room. Sakura left her flower in a vase the nurse had given her beside Fumiko's paper cup. Gaara came and went, wondering where she was and leaving as soon as Fumiko said she would stay until he woke. The last thing he wanted was a confrontation with the ninja.

Eventually Fumiko opened the windows to let air into the muggy room. The sun began to set. Fumiko swirled orange and red and yellow onto the back of a sheet of previously thrown out medical expense papers she had found in the rubbish bin.

Finally, finally, Lee opened his eyes.

He blinked blearily and glanced over to the flowers. "Someone... was here." he said wearily.

"Haruno Sakura." Fumiko supplied.

He looked over at her quickly, then paused as he recognized her.

"How... long was I..."

"A few hours," she said with a grin. "You would be sore but we reconnected your morphine and saline drips."

"Oh." he said. His eyes unfocused for a moment before resting on her face again. "I do not remember when I collapsed. Did I..."

Fumiko continued to smile and lied through her teeth good-naturedly. "All two hundred."

..

When Fumiko finally stumbled back into the apartment, she looked satisfied and worn out. Temari immediately stopped talking and leaned back on the couch beside Kankuro. Gaara stood alone by the door. When Fumiko looked at him quizzically, he very consciously nodded at her. She yawned.

"I'mma... gonna go to sleep." she said. "Long day at the hospital tomorrow. Sorry, Gaara."

He dipped his head again. "Go ahead."

"Did I get any mail?"

"Yes."

"I'll read it in... when I wake up. Later. Um. Will you come in soon, Gaara?"

Fumiko felt distinctly more comfortable in Gaara's room. She had become accustomed to sleeping while there was somebody near, and Gaara's room was swept with sand that had gradually built up- although Konoha wasn't very sandy, the particles that did exist followed him like lost puppies and deposited onto his floor. It wasn't nearly as much as the small desert in his room at Suna, but it made her more relaxed.

"Yes." he said again. Fumiko nodded and padded across the living room into the adjoining hallway, rubbing her eyes. It wasn't often a day made her tired. He would have to ask after it later. He heard his door creak closed.

..

Much, much later- Fumiko wasn't sure when- she woke suddenly.

Fumiko was lying on her side, curled into a messy ball facing the far wall. In the darkness, a pair of bright cerulean eyes stared through their window, although there was no light, which was odd. Unless...

"A lunar eclipse?" she whispered.

Gaara started. The blue spots flickered toward her, than back out the window. "Yes. Do you want to see?"

"Yeah."

She rolled out of the bed. Fumiko didn't bother scrabbling around for her prosthetic, just crawled until she was below the window next to Gaara. He was sitting as well.

She stared out the window. The sky was dark, with no stars, which Fumiko had never seen. Only a fading sliver was left of the big white moon- and it was disappearing even as she watched. A lunar eclipse- something she had always wanted to see.

They watched it in silence.


	19. Misunderstanding

"What are the chances that there would be a lunar eclipse, yeah? It was really cool."

Fumiko stretched as high as she could to reach the top shelf of the pantry- Temari, Baki and Kankuro often forgot that Gaara and Fumiko were a little short and put the cereals up there. Fumiko had about an hour before she had to be at the hospital, and she was hoping to eat breakfast while her and Gaara read over the mail.

"Here. Let me help."

Fumiko felt sand wrap around her legs and she was lifted the last foot and a half to the cereal. She didn't bother to smother her laughter. "Oh! Oh- ha. You know you could have just picked up the cereal with your sand, right?"

Gaara blinked at her from below. ""But you like being lifted up."

"Can't argue with that." she said happily. "Which one do you want? We have Frosted flakes, Lucky charms, and-"

"I don't have an appetite."

"You never have an appetite."

"That's because I always eat the food you bake."

"Guess I can't argue with that either, can I? Okay, okay." Fumiko reached for the lucky charms- which had pure sugar marshmallows in it and was spectacular- and enjoyed her brief feeling of tall-ness. Someday she would be able to reach things like that on her own. "Got it."

Gently he lowered her down. Immediately she moved to the fridge for milk.

..

Soon after, the both of them were seated at the table with a few papers scattered between them. Asuka, Fumiko's dark brown and white messenger hawk that she had rescued from a sandstorm, hopped along the table. Whenever she came, she stayed in Fumiko's room, perching on her easel. Gaara figured that was the most familiar thing it could find.

"Oh! Here's one from Mai. And mother. Even Yoshiki! And-" Fumiko paused, double-checking the name on the envelope. "-father. I suppose he isn't very happy with me."

"Did he refuse, again?"

"Yeah. But mom said I could come with you."

Fumiko tore open the first letter from Mai eagerly. "Dear Fumiko and Gaara." she read aloud. "To Gaara: I hope your training is going well. Mine sure is. Eishi has been too frightened lately to poke fun at me or Fumiko- even behind our backs! I guess he's still startled about the clones." Fumiko shook her head with a smile. "So much for not bothering Eishi..."

Gaara picked absently at the edge of Mr. Mitsuwa's letter. He wasn't so sure either of them would want to read it. Why had the man even bothered with sending a note in the first place? It wasn't like he wasn't going to say whatever it was he was mad about when they returned home.

"To Fumiko: I didn't hurt Eishi. I just spooked him. By the way, what did you say in Mom's letter? She read it and spat out her water, but she won't tell me what it was. Also, dad is really mad. He's kind of just stomping around the house. Bring Gaara with you when you come home. Well, of course I'm going to bring you with me," Fumiko said, looking up. "Mom and Mai will want to see you."

"That isn't what she meant."

Fumiko sighed. "I know that's not what she meant." She glanced back down at the paper. "Why does she want to borrow my long lasting paint?"

"Probably to pour it in someone's hair."

"Oh, you know, that's true. It probably would dye hair," she realized, "So I should say no."

Quickly, Fumiko penned out a letter. "Let's see- Dear Mai, I will bring Gaara. I'm sure dad will understand, though. I don't know why she would spit out her water, I just told her that-" Fumiko paused, then set her eraser to her words. "I will bring... will understand... I told her that all of my gates are opened. I don't know, if you know what that means or not. I also asked what exactly, she did with my foot after she amputated... it. And no... you cannot have, any, paint."

Fumiko read it over once, then looked over. "What do you want to say?"

"Um. Good job."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

Fumiko shrugged and wrote it down. "Gaara says, good job. I don't know, what that means. With love, Fumiko, and Gaara."

"Which one do you want to read next?"

"Ehh... Yoshiki's." Fumiko opened the envelope. Gaara figured Yoshiki must have given his letter to the Mitsuwas, considering that Asuka had brought it. "Hmm... Dear Fumiko, I'm glad you made it safely to Suna. I'm sorry I didn't write you earlier, but I was busy. When I heard from the courier-nin that the letters for the end of the preliminaries had come, I hurried to write this. How are you? What's Konoha like? Have you painted anything at all? Sincerely, Yoshiki." Fumiko frowned. "He didn't mention you anywhere..."

"Perhaps he forgot." Gaara said, although he was certain Yoshiki had very meticulously left him out of it.

"Maybe. Okay... Dear Yoshiki. That's fine, I've been busy as well. The Chuunin exams are going great, Gaara's doing awesome in his fights... the trip was fine. Konoha is, very green, and big. And colorful," she added as an afterthought. "The scenery is beautiful, and yes, I've painted a few things... but most of them were presents. There are, a lot of nice ninjas here." Here she looked up. "Do you want to say anything?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Not even hi?"

"'Hi'," he conceded.

"Gaara, says hi. With love, Fumiko and Gaara."

"Here's your mother's," he said, sliding her the letter. As she read it out loud, he busied himself with putting the letters she had already written into envelopes and addressing them.

"Dear Fumiko..." Fumiko smiled. "She wrote 'What' in all caps... That's dangerous! It isn't possible! You're right, you should be dead. But, I suppose it explains a few things..." Fumiko raised an eyebrow. "Whoa."

"What?"

"When you were a baby, the medic-nin who delivered you said you were going to die. You had a rare chakra deficiency that hadn't been seen in almost a hundred years, and they said you wouldn't survive. You father and I said our goodbyes. But suddenly you started crying and acting like a normal baby, and the medic-nin couldn't find anything wrong with you..."

She looked up at him.

"That's..."

"Whoa, right?" she said.

"Yes."

Fumiko looked back down and continued reading. "How do you know this? But all of that aside, how are you and Gaara? Is he eating at all? Have you slept? Did you bring enough paint? What's it like down in Konoha? Nothing very interesting has happened here, but be careful when you come home... I would prefer it if Gaara came with you. That again?" she said, startled. "Oh- From, mom. P.S- Oh, so she burned it. Huh."

"How much did your dad not want you to come here?"

"Enough, I guess," she said, but smiled. "Look, don't worry about it. Everything will be fine." She took up another piece of paper. "Dear mom. That's amazing. I know because a ninja named Hyuga Neji, saw it with his byakugan. I don't know for sure what a byakugan really is, but it can see, chakra flow. We're fine- Gaara's fights are going well... Yes, he's eating, and I slept last night. I've been painting, since I got here... Konoha is like a forest, with buildings. It's colorful and very, green. Not much sand. Mai said that too... Gaara will come with me. Gaara says..."

"Just tell her about the medical stuff you're doing. She'd like that. And that I said hi again."

Fumiko erased 'Gaara says'. "By the way, I'm volunteering, at the hospital here. The patients are really, nice, and so are the staff. Gaara says to tell you hi. With love, Fumiko and Gaara."

Fumiko's hands were more hesitant to slide for her father's note, but she eventually did.

"Fumiko... Actually, I'll read this in my head," she said, then scanned it. Gaara watched her carefully for a few minutes. At what must have been the very end, she flinched, then stood abruptly from the table. "I don't think he's expecting a response. Gaara, can you put the letters in Asuka's carrier bag? I'll be right back."

She vanished in what Gaara knew was the direction of the kitchen, most likely to throw the letter away before he could see it. Quietly, he slid the letters into the small handbag-looking pouch that Asuka used to carry her letters. He put them on the table- Asuka shied away. Animals didn't particularly like him. When he withdrew his hand, she gripped it in her talons.

"Take those to Fumiko's house," he said. The bird flew away, flapping for a second around the furniture in the house before disappearing through the open window. Soon after Fumiko re-entered the dining room and picked up her now empty bowl of cereal.

"I have to be at the hospital in ten minutes, so I'll see you later, okay, Gaara?"

"Sure."

When she left, the door closed almost inaudibly. Immediately Gaara stood and went into the kitchen, hoping she had just thrown the letter in the trash this time rather than sticking it down the disposal. She had.

Fumiko, I can't believe you ignored my wishes again. I am your father, and you need to start listening to me. What kind of daughter can't listen to simple instructions? Stop acting like you know more than I do, because you don't. I don't want you going on some stupid trip all the way to that leaf village just so you can see that demon-child kill people- I want you to come home right now.

There was no 'Sincerely' or 'Love' at the end, nor was there a signature. Gaara crumpled it again and shoved it back into the garbage.

..

The next three weeks was a blur of mornings and patients and conversations and exercising with Lee, although he never tried to do two hundred pushups again. Every day, she returned to the apartment exhausted, and most of the time ate dinner and went right to sleep. Gaara rested with her sometimes.

"Kiba, my mom burned my leg. I just thought you might like to know."

"What? You weirdo, why would you tell people that?!"

"Hey, Yoshihisa!"

"What's up, sweetheart?"

"Zaku, how are your arms feeling today?"

"I can move them now- see, look!"

"You're good to go. Watch out for poisonous blades, alright?"

"Yeah! My mom said she would buy me sugar just like yours when I got released, so now we're going to the market!"

"Hi! I'm Mitsuwa Fumiko."

"Hello."

"Good morning, Miyoka!"

"Good morning, dear. You're a blessing. We're shorthanded today."

"No- Gaara couldn't come today. Sorry, Togai."

"Hmph. Well tell him to hurry up and make time, squirt."

"Hi, Lee. What are we doing today?"

"Sleeping. I am tired. We should train tomorrow."

She met all sorts of new people, and kept up with a few constants, like Yoshihisa and Zaku and Togai and Lee. The patients and staff in the hospital all began to recognize her on sight and remember her name, and now, the hospital was almost like a second home to Fumiko. The people there welcomed her warmly whenever they saw her- Fumiko was pretty sure she was making friends. It was foreign and beautiful.

"Gaara," she said one night as they ate takeout from Ichiraku's. "Do you want to come to the hospital with me tomorrow?"

"Why?"

"A bunch of my regulars really want to meet you."

"... Okay, but don't expect me to get along with everybody..."

..

Every day, Fumiko left, came home, ate, and crashed. Gaara was curious about the Konoha hospital. So when she asked again, he finally agreed to accompany her- she insisted the people there wouldn't mind at all. On the contrary, apparently they wanted to meet him.

"Hey, Miyoka!" Fumiko greeted when they stepped inside. Cold air that smelled like antiseptic and gauze rushed against Gaara's face. He probably looked a little odd, standing in the hospital with his gourd, but he wasn't about to step into an unknown place unarmed.

"Good- Fumiko! Is this Gaara?"

"Yeah! I finally got him to come!"

Hesitantly Gaara followed her to the desk where 'Miyoka' sat. The nin smiled brightly at Fumiko, who smiled right back.

"Gaara, this is Miyoka, Miyoka, this is... well, you know." she said, and laughed. "Gaara."

"Oh, I've heard so much about you!" Miyoka said cheerily. Gaara noticed the nervous twitch of her eyes as she saw him, but aside from that tiny bit of fear his appearance and chakra always induced, she seemed genuinely happy to see the two of them. "Togai is going to be pleased- he's been bothering you about it since you got here, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, him and everyone else want to meet him. I've got to get up to the supply room now, but I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Fumiko!"

Fumiko led him up a set of stairs, to a room with aprons and medical tools and gloves. She handed him none of these. "You won't wear any of them, will you?"

"No."

She herself slid on a pair of latex gloves and placed an apron and a surgical mask inside of her bag, which sported fresh dandelions that she had stopped to pick in a little green field close to the hospital. "I give them to the patients every other day when I have time to pick them." Fumiko also tied her hair back into a long ponytail.

"We should visit Togai first. He's been wanting to meet you since day one. By the way, I told him about the whole... you know... explosion thing, but he doesn't know you're a jinchuriki or who Yashamaru was or anything like that."

Pain. "Okay."

Fumiko walked confidently through the labyrinth of hallways like she knew exactly where she was going. Although he hated to admit it, it was possible that if Gaara had come here on his own, he might have gotten helplessly lost. She turned him around when he accidentally passed by the door they were supposed to go into.

"No, Gaara, this way. This is Togai's room. Um, don't... don't mention his arm." Before he could ask what she meant, she opened the door and poked her head inside. "Togai!"

The voice that floated through the doorway was low and rough. "Hey, squirt."

"Guess who I brought?"

"Oh? So he finally got the nerve to show up, huh?"

Fumiko crossed fully through the doorway. "C'mon, Gaara."

He stepped in after her. He stood as straight as he could, arms crossed to avoid being awkward.

"'Ey! So you must be Gaara!"

The man on the bed sent a jolt through Gaara's mind. He was burned, badly burned- in a way Gaara recognized. Explosive tags. His right arm was completely gone, and when he raised his hand up to shake Gaara's hand, Gaara noticed the missing fingers. Of course, he ignored the offer.

"Huh. Exactly like you described him, squirt. Looks, personality, and all."

..

A few minutes later, Fumiko vanished into the closet for medication. Gaara watched the empty doorway.

Togai addressed Gaara directly once she was out of earshot. "Kid."

Gaara glanced at him. "Yes?"

"You know I can't hurt her like this even if I wanted to."

"What?"

"The way you're watching. I'm an old ninja. I've seen it before. Nobody in this hospital would touch her."

"Hm."

"Or maybe it's just your habit. I don't know." A pause. There was a rustling as Fumiko dug through boxes to get to what she was looking for. "The squirt told me about how she lost her leg. It must've been rough. But hey." he said quietly. "That girl has a good head on her shoulders and a heart I wish I saw more often. You just watch out for her, okay?"

Gaara watched him wordlessly.

..

Yoshihisa greeted him warmly and didn't seem offended in the slightest when Gaara ignored him.

"I've heard so much about you. All good things, all good things."

"Gaara, this is Yoshihisa. You actually just caught him- aren't you being released today?"

He smiled. "Sweetheart, I'm going back to work today."

"Good for you. Watch out for swords this time, though," she joked, swabbing at the stitches on his abdomen with rubbing alcohol. "Hey Gaara, can you hand me those scissors?"

He did so, and watched as she carefully cut each stitch and threaded out the line. Yoshihisa talked the entire time, about visitors and the other nurses and what he was going to do when he got out, seemingly uninterested in his wound. He tried to engage Gaara with a conversation multiple times, but Gaara was perfectly content to just watch the interactions.

..

"Hey, Fumiko. Gaara."

"Hi, Zaku."

Gaara didn't say anything. Fumiko unwrapped the bandages on Zaku's arms and ran her fingers along the bumpy skin beneath them. "These are healing really well. I love medical ninjutsu- it works so much faster than anything else. Okay, move your arms for me."

Zaku shifted them a little bit. Gaara remembered the way they had practically exploded before in the arena.

"Okay- try it like this-" Fumiko said, rotating her wrists. Zaku imitated her and almost succeeded. "One- two- good job, keep going- three- oh, that's all right, it's okay; Zaku, you're doing great! Just do it with me- four, five-"

..

They went from place to place, room to room, Gaara met women, children, men of every age and character. Al of them recognized Fumiko immediately and smiled so wide he thought some of their faces would split in half. They also recognized him, and referenced things he had entirely forgotten about- "Hey, Gaara, did Fumiko really skip her classes?"-"Did you actually set her kitchen on fire?"-"Does she paint your scar often?"

It was surreal.

Finally she led him to another room, one that he recognized.

"Fumiko-"

"He doesn't blame you."

"But-"

"Gaara." She smiled. "Relax."

And she opened the door.

Lee was sleeping. Very soundly as well.

"Oh... he must have been exercising again." she glanced over at the nightstand. "Sakura was here again... Stay here for a second. I'm gonna go check on Uzumaki Naruto really quick; since Lee's out. He won't wake up, I swear," she said when she caught Gaara's worried frown. "When he trains before I get here he always passes out for the rest of the night."

Fumiko was gone then, leaving Gaara alone with the boy he had nearly killed and definitely ruined.

..

Fumiko trotted down and through the hallways until she reached Uzumaki Naruto's room, expecting another conversation and maybe a game of Shogi that she would certainly lose with Shikamaru, who often came to visit. However, when she slid the door open, the room was empty. The Shogi game's timer was still draining sand.

"Oh..."

..

It hurt. Remembering Gai's hard expression and the scream he had accidentally on purpose elicited until this boy's throat was sore. It was like the day he had met Fumiko- Yashamaru had slipped in front of her without a second thought, just like Gai.

"Who are you?" Gaara demanded in a shaky voice, holding his arms to his chest. "What do you want?"

When the man didn't answer him, he glanced at Fumiko, who took a few edging steps toward the body. Gaara followed suit, and just before they reached him, Gaara saw it: a bandage on the man's finger.

No. He swallowed. Gaarra knelt and cautiously so cautiously reached a trembling hand out the the cloth blocking the man's face from view. He touched it, then, steeling himself, yanked it off. Gaara's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat.

Yashamaru lie there, dazed, blood coming out of his mouth and a cut on his forehead. He stared blankly at Gaara.

Gaara flinched. His eyes twitched and he trembled, clutching his chest. Gaara screamed in confusion, startling Fumiko, who stood beside the body, frozen in fear. Fumiko looked down on him in concern, but he could see that her eyes were drawn to the three thin trails of blood down Yashamaru's face. "Why... Why? Yashamaru... Why did you do it? I don't understand..."

Now Gaara's eyes welled with tears. His voice cracked. Gaara hunched over in grief, pulling on his own hair to try and alleviate the crushing pain in his heart.

"Tell me why..."

Surely, if he loved Gaara, he wouldn't have...

"I thought... Yashamaru... If I'm precious to y-you... how could you?"

"Augh!"

Gaara grasped at the side of his head painfully. That- that memory... hadn't surface in so long...

"I suppose it's because... deep in my heart... I hate you, Gaara."

Gaara's heart almost stopped.

"...I've always hated you."

Pain throbbed through his veins. Where was Fumiko?

"Your name is... the one your mother gave you. Your name is Gaara, a demon that loves only itself, as you must love no one else. Care for no one's existence but your own. Fight only for yourself. In that way, you will be sure to survive."

Fumiko's hand was warm through his shirt.

"This is the dying gift your mother left you. But not out of maternal affection. It is not from love that she gave you your name." Yashamaru's voice turned almost harsh. "It was from her undying rage at this village- it was part of her curse that you should survive and grow. Her hate lives on in you. You were never loved, Gaara. Never."

His eyes twitched. Festering bleeding memories he had been certain were buried too far down to ever be seen again bubbled up quicker than Fumiko's smiles.

Yashamaru reached for his jacket and Fumiko had to let go of Gaara's sleeve. Unzipping it, there was a spark as the papers pasted to his body lit up. Gaara didn't realize what it was until it was too late, caught up in grief like he was. The spark burned.

"But now..." he smiled softly, and Fumiko screamed, realizing too late, too late. Gaara still didn't understand. "It's over."

There was quiet as sadness drowned out Fumiko's ringing screams.

"Please die."

Gaara froze. Not on purpose, either- he literally couldn't move his body. Sand slid up his clothes and coated his skin.

Pain, real pain, not mental pain, erupted in Gaara's cheek, snapping him out of his memories. There was another cry- the one controlling his shadow- as Gaara stumbled against his will.

"What the heck to you think you're doing in here, you rat?"

What?

"Ugh. Hey, man, go easy. I'm using my shadow possession jutsu, so when you're bashing him you're bashing me, too. You got it?"

"Oh, sorry, Shikamaru."

Gaara recognized his blond hair and right away, panic sparked.

Fumiko had gone to check on him, hadn't she? So why wasn't she here and he was?

Where was Fumiko?

Gaara strained against the possession. He never thought his own shadow would betray him at a time like this- actually, he had never thought his shadow would betray him at all. Gaara couldn't even grit his teeth, but his mouth twitched as his shadow tried to make him speak.

Sand cracked off his cheek.

"Out with it." Uzumaki Naruto demanded. "What were you trying to pull?"

"Let me go."

"Tell me!"

"Let me go!" Gaara was angry.

..

"Oh, well. I'm sure he's just wandering around with Shikamaru." Miyoka said. "We'll find him. Why don't you go back to Gaara and go home? It's been a long day. Hey, doesn't the third Chuunin exam start tomorrow?"

"Yeah. You're right; we need to go home. Thank you, Miyoka."

"Go ahead. I'll sign you out in a moment."

Fumiko clumped her way back up the stairs, gripping the handrail. She had left Gaara longer than she thought she would- she hoped being in the same room as Lee wasn't bothering him too much. Although, Lee really wouldn't wake up, so it shouldn't have made him too uncomfortable as long as he acted antisocial like he usually did.

Either way, Fumiko figured she should go up and find him.

..

"Back off, will you?" Shikamaru exclaimed.

Gaara was seething, although he kept his outside appearance neutral. It was unlike Fumiko to do something, have that something be unnecessary, and then take so long in returning. Had something happened? Was it this ninja in front of him that she had went to see? Whatever it was that was making the Shukaku nervous; was that it?

"We don't wanna go there!" Shikamaru continued. "This guy fights like he's mad, like he's a demon or something!"

A demon, huh? Gaara thought darkly. Interesting choice of words.

Yashamaru wasn't Yashamaru anymore, just a scattered pile of ashes and a few shreds of explosive paper. He forced himself not to cry and then turned back to Fumiko because she was alive and she needed help.

Her face was starting to sweat, but Gaara didn't know anything about healing besides the fact that medicine helped wounds to heal. So, apologizing profusely whenever she screamed, he picked her up bridal style to avoid touching her injured foot, and staggered up.

A single passersby looked, saw, and walked away.

"He can act like a demon if he wants to, but you know what? I got the real thing inside of me."

Oh. The Shukaku's nervousness suddenly made sense.

"Idiot." Shikamaru hissed quietly. "Leave this to me. What's the point of getting him mad?"

Too late for that. Way too late. As soon as the shadow released him he planned on killing or at least maiming both of them and then figuring out what happened to his best friend.

"A demon, huh?" Gaara asked coldly, closing his eyes. "My demon is as real as yours is."

His thoughts were still numb from fear and the residue of his flashbacks. Why the hell not tell them? Maybe it would startle them enough to let him go.

"Ever since I was born, my upbringing was not what most people would consider a happy one. To make sure that I became the strongest of shinobi, my father had cast his ninjutsu on me, infusing my unborn self with the sand spirit. I destroyed the life of the woman that gave birth to me. I was born a monster. it's name is Shukaku, and it's a living incarnation of an old monk of the sand village who had been sealed up in a jar of tea."

He saw their horrified expressions and accepted them. Shikamaru quickly recovered his face.

"Yeah? Some kind of demonic jutsu, but to use it on a baby? Before it's even born? Man, that's creepy. Gee, what a swell guy your dad must have been. He really must have loved you a lot."

"You speak of love?" Gaara murmured. "Given life by the death of my mother, I was brought into being and nurtured as the salvation of the village. I was the kazekage's child. My father taught me the innermost secrets of the shinobi. He pampered and protected me, and left me to myself. For a time, I thought that was love. I met Fumiko."

Now where is she? Gaara thought. Whe they didn't respond, Gaara continued. "And that was when it started."

"What started?" Shikamaru asked.

"What was it?" Naruto said. "Are you gonna tell us or not? So go on- what started? What was it?"

"What happened to her?" Yoshiki hissed while Fumiko's parents tended her. She screamed and yelled, and Gaara felt wounds in his heart.

"I-"

"Get out!" her father ordered above the noise. "Both of you, out!"

They were ushered out the door, which slammed behind them. Gaara was almost crying, again, he could feel tears building up in his eyes.

"I didn't know," Gaara said. "My... friend betrayed me."

"What?"

"That's what happened. He betrayed me. On orders from my father, Lord kazekage, he tried to kill me."

"Why would your own father-" Yoshiki cried angrily, suspicion clear in his voice.

"Because of the shukaku," Gaara said miserably. "Because I could become a danger to the village. He tried to kill me with paper bombs, but my sand protected us, only I guess it didn't cover us all the way in time."

"In the seventh year, since we became seven years old, my father tried to destroy me and her more times than I can count." Gaara blurted, eyes flying open.

That made them react. Shikamaru flinched and so did Naruto. But then, Shikamaru's face hardened.

"You just finished saying how your father pampered and protected you. So which is it?"

You think it's just so black and white, Gaara thought furiously. The corner of his lips curled in the beginning's of a frenzied smirk. Not good. Not good. The shukaku stirred as his anger grew.

"Those who get to be too strong are apt to become feared." he said, clenching his fist the best he could. It only trembled. "My father, the kazekage, created me as his ultimate weapon, but I eventually became a threat to the very village I was meant to save. The demon doesn't like to be controlled. By the time I was seven I became a figure of terror all but one of the villagers. To them, I was a relic of the past that they wished would disappear. So he could see that I'd failed at the one purpose for which I was given life."

..

Something was wrong. She wasn't sure what, but something was wrong, Fumiko could feel it in her bones.

She scurried as quickly as she could to Lee's room. How likely was it that Uzumaki Naruto and Shikamaru had found Gaara in Lee's room? How likely was it that they had gotten the wrong idea?

..

His sand rose behind him with his agitation.

"Now let me go!"

..

She was sliding and skidding her way to the door so quickly that she smacked right into a person.

"G-Gai!"

Before she could really think about it any further, Fumiko ripped the door open. Sand stung her eyes. "Gaara!"

"All right, that's enough!" Gai said at the same time.

All eyes jerked to them. Gaara's instantly swamped with relief, but why?

"Save it 'till tomorrow. That's when the final competition begins. You're just wasting it today, is that what you want?"

..

What am I? What am I?

Gaara quashed the memory. She was right there. Nobody had touched her.

His sand drained back into his gourd slowly. Naruto unfroze, and Gaara felt the rigid tightness of his body fade as Shikamaru recalled his shadow.

"Bye, Gai, Uzumaki Naruto, Shikamaru." Fumiko said quickly as Gaara passed her. "Shikamaru, don't forget your Shogi game, and Uzumaki Naruto, the hospital is looking for you, so check in with Miyoka soon. We're going home."

Fumiko walked with Gaara around the corner and they weren't followed.

Before she could ask what had happened, his hands were on her cheeks. Fumiko was so startled that she didn't say a word as he scanned her face. Finally, Gaara sighed, closed his eyes, and tipped his forehead until it pressed against hers.

"Gaara, what's wrong..?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing. Nothing. I thought you were hurt."

"Why would I be hurt?"

Gaara didn't pull away or show any signs that he was going to. His breath ghosted across her face. Hesitantly, Fumiko hugged him.

"You never came back. Naruto did but you didn't."

"Oh- oh. No, Gaara, Uzumaki Naruto had already left when I got there, so I reported it to Miyoka. I'm so sorry, I should have checked in with you first..."

"No. No, it's fine. I'm just paranoid." Gaara moved back.

"That's okay. You have some reason to be. C'mon, Gaara, let's go home. You need to rest before your battle with Sasuke tomorrow."

..

"Where have you been?" Temari shrieked the second they slid the door opened.

"The hospital. Everything's fine." Fumiko said. "I'll explain tomorrow, okay? We're really, really tired and-"

"The hospital?" Kankuro demanded. "Fumiko, Gaara can't just-"

"We're going to bed." Gaara said, and Kankuro cut off with an almost-choke at his expression.

..

Fumiko curled against the wall. Gaara laid arrow-straight on the edge of the bed like he usually did, arms resting on his stomach. Neither of them fell asleep, although Fumiko slipped into a semi-wakefulness, staring at the ceiling. He missed his, with the paintings scattered across it. His heart hadn't yet stopped pounding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up in a little more of a dramatic way than I intended, but I like it. This is also around the time that I start editing things... for instance, while Gaara does have flashbacks, he doesn't want to kill Lee. I also changed his speech a bit, if you didn't notice.


	20. Unrest in the arena- Kankuro WHAT?

The morning of the next day was quiet. Neither of them had gotten any sleep, and so halfway through the night, they went up to the roof and watched the stars and the moon. Fumiko saw her third shooting star and wished loudly that Gaara did well in his fight against Sasuke. Gaara wouldn't tell her what his wish had been.

They didn't go down until the sun had began to rise. Fumiko wasn't really tired, but her body didn't seem to like that she didn't fall asleep after a full day at the hospital. She sat for so long on the shingled roof that when she got up, her leg hurt.

"Ow." she murmured as she limped to the bathroom. "Ow... ow."

The bones in Fumiko's leg were beginning to throb, which Fumiko knew meant she was either growing again and it was aggravating her half-leg, or she had been walking around too much, or both. Probably, both.

"Ne, Gaara," she called from the bathroom where she was brushing her hair. Fumiko was leaning heavily against the counter, gritting her teeth whenever she put any weight on her prosthetic. They had a few hours to kill before the third exams began.

"Yes?"

"Can you get the aspirin from my bag, please?"

Gaara popped his head into the tiny bathroom from the hallway, frowning. "Why?"

"Ehh, my leg is starting to hurt." she said with a grin. "Probably just from running around in the hospital."

"How bad is it?"

Fumiko laughed. "I'm fine. I just don't want to limp any more than usual." she paused. Then she squinted at Gaara's face. "Hey. Are you okay?"

"Wh-what?"

Fumiko peered at Gaara's drawn features, concerned. "You look worried. Is something wrong?"

"Of course not."

"Something's wrong." she put the brush down. "Gaara, you've been edgy all night. At first I thought it was just because of yesterday, but it isn't, is it? Gaara, what is it? Maybe I can help."

"I'll go get your aspirin." he muttered, and slipped out back into the hallway.

"Is this about Sasuke?" Fumiko called after him, and hobbled halfway out of the bathroom. She gripped the doorframe and put all of her weight on her real foot, biting her lip. "Are you nervous?"

He stopped, his back to her.

"Yeah..." he said slowly. "That's it."

"Oh!" Fumiko exclaimed. Then she smiled. "Why didn't you say so? I'll make some maple milk in a minute."

An invention of her own. It included milk, obviously, and one other ingredient that she kept a secret. Somehow it was great for nerves- she made it for Mai on the nights she had come home wailing about bullies before she started defending herself, and for her mother after a hard day at the hospital. Fumiko rarely ever made it for Gaara, because he never really got nervous.

He nodded at her with a straining half-smile. "Sure."

In the back of her mind, this unsettled her. But she ignored the feeling and smiled back again. "Okay. I'll be in the kitchen then." Fumiko stopped, mid-step, however, and peered down the other end of the hall instead, toward the siblings' rooms. "Um. Are Kankuro and Temari awake yet? I haven't seen them."

"Still sleeping."

"New plan," she giggled. "I'll be waking Kankuro up."

"I'll leave pills in the kitchen."

"Thanks! Love you."

"You too."

With that she smiled again, and turned in the direction of the siblings' adjoining bedrooms.

She'd only waken Kankuro once before. During the blurring days of her volunteer time at the hospital, Temari had charged her with getting him out of bed before she left so that he could get ready for training. It definitely wasn't an easy task.

Fumiko leaned against the wall, sliding along to the door. She heard Gaara's footsteps recede into her room.

Fumiko knocked on the door.

"Kankuro?"

Silence.

"Kankuro?"

Still nothing. Fumiko opened the door.

"Kankurooo~"

"Ngh!"

"Good morning," she said cheerily, limping into the room. There was a distorted lump on the bed huddled under the covers, and he appeared to be both sprawled out and curled into a ball at the same time. Where there had been snores before, there was only silence. "It's time to get up- the exams start in two hours."

"..."

Fumiko opened the curtains. Bright Konoha sunlight shone into the little room, as bright as Suna's but less obtrusive; softer.

"...Ugh..."

"Kankuro."

"..."

"You have to get up, Kankuro..."

"... Go bother Temari."

"She'll wake up the second I open the door and the air changes." Fumiko laughed. "Come on, Kankuro. Mornings aren't so bad."

The room filled with wordless silence until she laughed again.

"I'll make pancakes."

"Get out. Out! I'm getting dressed."

As Fumiko slid the door to Temari's room open, she heard dark muttering that sounded kind of like, "Stupid insomniac brats, never knowing a decent time in the morning from a piece of wood..."

"I'm up," Temari said groggily before Fumiko had even opened her mouth.

"Good morning, Temari!" Fumiko sang, then winced. Her pain was getting worse, spiking up to her knee. She wondered if Gaara had found her painkillers yet. Fumiko had hoped to be perfectly ready for Gaara, Temari and Kankuro's matches today, but it seemed as if the rest of her just wasn't feeling it. Her body was tired, her leg hurt, even her throat felt scratchy.

"Morning..."

"I'm gonna make pancakes and maple milk. Do you want anything particular?"

"You're wide awake... Why do these competitions have to be so early?" Temari groaned, yawning as she sat up in her bed.

"Because there's a bunch of fights to get through. Do you-"

"Just toast."

As soon as Fumiko was sure Kankuro wasn't going to fall asleep again- which he did, several times- she finally stepped out of his and Temari's room to make breakfast. As she stepped across the carpet, she was planning. Pancakes for Kankuro, French toast for herself, normal toast for Temari, and eggs for Gaara, along with cereal and maple milk for everyone.

Fumiko tossed back the two white pills as soon as she limped her way back into the kitchen. Gaara was nowhere to be seen, although the faint sounds of a shower running floated from the hallway. She could imagine that he wasn't trying to get clean- after all, he was about to have a match- but trying instead to drown out other sounds until he could only hear his own thoughts.

When the pain subsided slightly, Fumiko moved to the cupboards and pulled down cups and plates and forks, then from the pantry she took eggs and flour and bread. If she was going to make breakfast in a half an hour, she was going to have to hurry...

..

Gaara toweled his hair off, shaking away the last stubborn droplets of water until all that was left was a damp chill. He threw it on the bed when he was finished. Scowling slightly to himself, he tugged open the sticky dresser drawer that held his fishnet shirts.

Fumiko had noticed.

And now she thought he was nervous about his damn match.

Another lie, Gaara thought bitterly as he pulled the shirt over his head. And the scary thing was that she had bought it.

Gaara stared at his hands. Already, small grains of sand were beginning to wisp around them, almost invisible. A shaft of light turned them golden like tiny suns. Well, congratulations, they seemed to say. You managed to keep a secret from your best friend successfully for a month. Bravo, you heartless master of ours. Now what are you going to do when she finds out about it?

The Shukaku was surprisingly silent. Usually, it fed on Gaara's own torment and grew stronger as Gaara himself wilted, but now the old demon was entirely quiet. He was there- Gaara could feel him- but he wasn't even trying to manipulate or taunt him, which was odd. It was nice, but unnerving.

He could smell the thick aroma of overly-sweet French toast batter wafting from the kitchen. Fumiko was cooking.

Gaara sighed and tore his eyes away from the dancing specks of sand. He needed to finish getting dressed. At this rate, Kankuro would be ready before him.

..

Fumiko set the last plate down on the table just as Gaara stepped into the kitchen. His red hair was still damp from his shower and hung limp over his forehead, covering his kanji. He wasn't wearing his gourd, although he carried it by the strap in one hand.

Fumiko didn't say anything, just smiled brightly and pulled the yellow apron over her head. She dropped it soundlessly on the counter closest to her. Fumiko's Suna cloak was draped over her chair. On the table was food and various other condiments, like syrup, butter, peach jelly, and of course, sugar.

"Hey, Gaara." Temari greeted as she slipped in around him. "Fumiko. It smells good in here."

"Is Kankuro aw-" Fumiko suddenly stopped, choking on the itch in her throat, then coughed. It hurt her throat but she couldn't stop. This seemed to be happening more and more lately.

When it passed, she sucked in a breath. Gaara was at her side, although how he had gotten around the table so quickly was beyond her. She smiled crookedly up to meet his worried expression. "Phew. Don't know where that came from!"

"Are you okay?"

"Yep. Just a little scratch in my throat..."

"Kankuro's almost ready," Temari said evenly, eyebrows raised. "... to answer your question."

"Well good!" she smiled. "I made blueberry pancakes."

..

The trip to the arena was long. Although the pain medication had ceased most of the pain in her leg, she was starting to get a little fuddled as it made her sleepy. Every once in a while she would swan off away from their set path and Gaara would guide her gently back onto the road.

She wasn't exactly looking forward to the fights, per say, but she was getting excited. But she still wasn't sure if Sasuke was even going to show up- he had disappeared the day she met Lee, a while ago, and while Fumiko was sure he was fine, she didn't know if he planned on making an appearance. That would be a little bitter, she supposed, kind of rude.

Fumiko took in the sights. She was growing more used to Konoha, and she wondered what it would be like when they got back to Suna and everything was different. She still missed her home, but at the same time, she didn't want to leave the green, colorful, rich village full of kind people and dandelions and misty sunrise mornings.

Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro walked silently around her. The silence was normal for Gaara, but usually by now Temari would be boasting or testing the wind on her fingers; Kankuro would be talking and talking and talking. Now, however, they all seemed caught up in a tangible swell of harsh solemnity, like they were talking wordlessly to one another about something serious and Fumiko was being left out.

..

Fumiko filled the silence with words of useless sunshine, chattering happily about birds and flowers and paints and the upcoming battle. She pointed out local animals and waved to the people of Konoha as though she had lived here all her life.

Gaara didn't know what she thought was happening. It was obvious by the tone of her voice, the curve of her steps- to him, anyway- that she knew something was up, but she either didn't know or didn't care what. Most likely she figured it was just their battles coming up, or if she was more alert than she appeared to be right now, she might throw her darts a little closer and assume that they were planning something- but never in a million years would she guess that they would betray the village.

She trusted them. Him. That was why.

All of her new friends in Konoha, the ones she had talked on and on about during the nights when they didn't sleep, piercing the dark with excited whispers of how kind the people were, how friendly; how she couldn't wait to see them again the next day- they want to meet you, meet you, meet you.

He had been so happy for her...

So grateful to the people who saw her for who she really was...

It was rushing up on him all at once. If their plan worked, every new friend, every man, woman, and tiny child would be dead before the day was done. Fumiko would forgive him. She always forgave him. But it would haunt her the way Yashamaru haunted him- smiling faces, drifting voices, the memories of cries and blood.

He didn't want to do it. Could he have a change of heart? Suddenly demand to be left out of this, drop out of the Chuunin exams, and just go home? Unscathed for once. Dealing with Fumiko's father suddenly didn't seem half so unpleasant.

Somebody was touching him.

"Gaara?" Fumiko was saying. "Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"You're shaking..."

The spell was broken. This was the kazekage's plan, after all- he owned Suna. If Gaara didn't help pull off this huge, all cards on the table move just because of Fumiko, things could get terrible fast. He'd killed so many people, but what was the difference now? I barely know any of them, he told himself sternly. Pull yourself together.

"Am I?" he said tonelessly. "I didn't notice."

Fumiko opened her mouth to say more, but Temari saved him. "Hey, guys, look- that's the arena."

"Oh..." Fumiko said softly. "I guess I have to leave then and find the spectator's entrance. Okay. You guys be careful during your matches, alright? All of you can become Chuunin; wouldn't that be cool! The we can go home and be totally lazy."

Her smile was killing him.

"Bye, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro," she said as they neared the competitor entrance. "Love you. Be careful."

"You too." he nodded, averting his eyes. "I will."

She scampered away to meet Baki in her designated seat.

"How again are we supposed to get her out of the crowds when it all goes down?" Kankuro drawled in a bored tone.

"Baki will get her. Remember?"

"And there's no way she can just stay there until it's all over?"

..

Temari elbowed Kankuro roughly. She looked back nervously. Gaara was behind them, seemingly absorbed in his own thoughts.

"What?"

"Even you're not that stupid. If we leave her anywhere in this town, 'when it all goes down'," she said, making air quotes around his words, "the ANBU in the village would flock all over her, thinking she was an accomplice. This town would really be razed to the ground if they took Fumiko for any kind of interrogation or bargaining. You know that. He would kill everyone and then us for not protecting her."

"Oh. Right."

"You're just upset because you have to surrender your match with that Shino guy."

"Come on." Gaara said from behind them, voice flat. As usual, there wasn't any emotion in it. "Let's go already."

..

The seats were crowded with people, cheering men and women who stood, sat, and moved rather unpredictably. It was hard to climb around the place but Fumiko couldn't help but get infected with the excitement racing through the air. Gaara and his siblings were already stood in the arena, but Fumiko had yet to find her seat. But Baki was supposed to be around here somewhere...

"Baki- oh, excuse me, excuse, me, sorry- Baki!"

"Fumiko, over here."

"Baki!" She thumped down into the open seat beside him. "Did I miss anything? I couldn't really hear over the crowd."

"The hokage of this village welcomed us. The Fourth Kazekage also arrived a few minutes ago."

"Huh!" Fumiko gasped. "He did? Where?"

She had totally missed it. Baki nodded toward another section of the arena, but all Fumiko could make out from here was dark shapes inside of a big bird's-eye seat. That must have been where the Hokage and Kazekage were staying during the match.

Fumiko had rarely ever spoken with Gaara's father face to face. She could count on one hand the number of times he had actually said something back. No- make that half a hand. The only things she knew about him Gaara told her, and of course barely any of it was good. Not to mention she'd almost been killed a few times by his assassins. He couldn't be evil, but Gaara...

Gaara...

He wasn't looking at the Kazekage, but at something what must have been the proctor was holding.

"Hey, Baki," she said aloud.

"Hm?"

"What happened to Hayate? Wasn't he supposed to be the proctor for the third exam?"

Silence.

"Baki?"

"I don't know, child." he said irritably, looking down at the competitors. "How would I?"

Most of the Genin competitors began to break off, save for Uzumaki Naruto and Neji. All around her there was chatter, but most of it was just blunt statements about Uzumaki Naruto's imminent doom or insensitive bets on how long the blond haired boy would last. The pair faced off in the middle of the arena. Fumiko palmed a handful of sugar but didn't eat it.

"Show me what you've got!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled, and Fumiko realized that she had missed an entire conversation.

"All right." the new proctor said. "Let the first match begin!"

A leaf fluttered past Fumiko's face, nearly brushing her nose. She watched, leaning out of her chair just slightly to rub her leg, which was beginning to hurt again. A cool, welcome breeze swished her hair back over her shoulders.

Faster than she could blink, there was a kunai in Neji's hand and then in the rock beside him. Fumiko blinked then, unsure what had just happened. Uzumaki Naruto flashed forward, an orange blur suddenly in front of Neji, but his punch made it nowhere as Neji blocked. Uzumaki Naruto slanted sideways and fell, but used the momentum to flip in midair like the ninja he was and land crouched a few feet away.

Fumiko's lips parted slightly. It had happened so quickly she hadn't even had time to process it!

Uzumaki Naruto lurched forward, fists blurring. Fumiko watched closely, focusing on Neji's face rather than Uzumaki Naruto's hands. That was impossible. Neji's head never moved, and Fumiko realized that all of Uzumaki Naruto's punches were missing because Neji was blocking faster than he could attack.

Uzumaki Naruto kicked and was thrown back. He pivoted on one foot, the other still shot into the air, and jumped; kicking with his other foot. Neji dodged, and Uzumaki Naruto lunged forward to attack. His fist stretched forward.

"Naruto, watch out!" Fumiko recognized the voice as Sakura's, but, looking around, failed to spot her anywhere.

Neji darted forward and punted his palm forward. There was a flash of smoky blue, and Uzumaki Naruto twitched back. In that moment, Sakura yelled again: "Naruto, he can see your chakra points!"

It was way too late for that advice. Neji stabbed downward with his fingers, sinking into Uzumaki Naruto's shoulder. Uzumaki Naruto stumbled and fell, but grunted and staggered back up to one knee, clutching his shoulder. Now Fumiko chewed on her handful of sugar, nervously. Here they went again, fighting.

"Do you understand now?" Neji said. His voice stuck under Fumiko's skin like cactus needles, reminiscent of the tone he had used with Hinata, and later, with Fumiko herself. He was about to say something bitter. Neji was still stood in his gentle fist taijutsu stance. "You have no way of beating me."

"Heh!" Uzumaki Naruto scoffed, like Fumiko had been hoping he would. "Get real. I was just checking you out, that's all." He pulled himself to his feet. "Okay, now that we're warmed up, we can get started." His face hardened, his fingers rising and pushing together into a symbol. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

There were four puffs of white smoke that curled off identical clones of Uzumaki Naruto. They pulled identical kunai out of identical pouches, holding them out simultaneously with ringing shings that vibrated in Fumiko's ears. All of their faces were lit with scar-curling confident smirks.

"No matter." Neji said flippantly. "You can't hide for long."

"Ha!" the clones breathed loudly. Their voices were the same, but layered together they sounded different. "Well we'll just see about that!"

Glancing over, Fumiko caught part of Baki's confused frown.

"What? What is it?"

"That boy... he's using the shadow clone jutsu again. Where on Earth did he learn it, I wonder..?"

"Well if you're coming then come on." Neji snapped impatiently.

"Hey!" they all yelled.

"Don't ever-"

"don't ever-"

"I mean never-"

"Count me out!"

They rushed him then.

Without ample Genjutsu, usually it was extremely difficult for a ninja- especially Genin- to block and maintain battle with four other ninja at once. Even if they had amazing Taijutsu or Ninjutsu skills, they were always struck at one point or another...

However, Neji...

... didn't appear to have this problem.

He vaulted over the first two Uzumaki Narutos, spring boarding off their shoulders. He landed and swiftly pulled his arms up, blocking the two had-held kunai from two separate clones on either side of him, seemingly without looking. They deflected. The final one rushed him, yanking it's knee up.

At first, Fumiko almost thought that Neji had been struck.

But then, she realized that he hadn't grunted or even flinched.

Neji soared back in a perfectly executed backflip, landing nimbly on two feet amidst the crowd of Uzumaki Narutos.

Fumiko was speechless. Fast was acceptable. Silent was acceptable. Strong was acceptable. Having alleged total three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vision and the reflexes to respond to it? Still acceptable, but up until now Fumiko had never met, seen, or heard of someone with that ability.

Though, she supposed every last Genin here that wasn't from Suna would swear the same thing about Gaara's sand.

The clones regrouped. One of them, Fumiko wasn't sure if it was a clone or not, spoke. "Not bad. But let's see you do that again!"

Neji didn't even look at them as two Uzumaki Narutos sprinted at him from both sides. Instead he tensed, brought his hand up, and leaped into a spinning midair jump. He lashed out as the clones were about to smack into each other, both of his feet going in swirling opposite directions. One crunched into the top of a blond head. The other smashed into a chin.

Fumiko wasn't sure whether to be worried or not. Most of the fighters were clones and it was impossible to tell which was which, one from the other, creator from creation. The one on Neji's right that had been struck grunted and exploded into smoke.

Clone.

Neji landed neatly just in time to be jumped from behind by another two fighters and another two blades. Without glancing back, he jerked his arms behind him, sliding both kunai to the side and as they got closer, throwing the arms forward. The two fighters stumbled, tried to turn back, and yelled out as Neji slammed both palms into their chests. They flew back.

Both clones hit the ground and dissolved into smoke.

That left two. One was still struggling on the dirt after being kicked in the chin, and Fumiko guessed that that one was a clone. Judging by all of Uzumaki Naruto's actions thus far, he wasn't one to struggle feebly on the ground quietly. Neji walked towards it.

He picked it up, but barely had lifted it to eye level before the clone imploded. White smoke shifted like pale ghosts around him.

"You thought you could be Hokage?" Neji's words were barely audible, but the venom in them was clear. "It's absurd. Never." He looked toward Uzumaki Naruto. Fumiko couldn't make out his expression. "These eyes of mine show me many things. One thing they've shown me is that people's limitations are set, fixed, and unchangeable. Only a fool wastes his time trying to become something he can never be."

There it was. The tirade of cutting words. She'd actually kind of hoped that he'd thought about her words, but she supposed that after so long a time of being the way he was, words only went so far. Besides, he had acted so stunned when he looked into her chakra that she was fairly certain Neji had blocked everything else out.

"A fool, huh?" Uzumaki Naruto spat. "Here we go again! Who are you to judge what a person can or can't be?"

"Do you think anyone can be Hokage?" Neji taunted. "That all it takes is a little 'hard work'?"

Uzumaki Naruto said nothing.

"Open your eyes," Neji continued, undaunted. "Of all the shinobi in all the world, think how few ever become Hokage."

True facts, but untrue words. Few people aspired to become so great as to become Kazekage, at least in Suna. People just didn't have the grit or really the determination. Fumiko herself would never want to be Kazekage- Yoshiki did, but that was more of a half-dreamed plan than a solid goal.

"They were born destined to be Hokage. It's not something you become merely by trying to become. They were chosen by destiny."

"Is that what he thinks?" she blurted. Of all the things to put your faith in, destiny was the saddest. Never having a choice, never having a say- just the set path and nothing else. No wonder he spoke the way he did. "Destiny?"

"Each person is given his own path to follow. And he must follow it, obediently, to the end." Neji paused. "There is only one destiny we all share equally."

Death, Fumiko thought immediately. She didn't usually dwell on things like that- death, or growing old, or losing people she loved- but now, instinctively, with Neji's voice wheedling through the crowd, she looked over at the waiting area towards Gaara. He was staring intently at the battle.

Just how much time..?

Fumiko banished the thought before she could finish it. This was no time to be thinking about things like that- they were twelve, for Kami's sake.

There was a long pause before Neji spoke again. But when he did, the words sounded hollowed out- like he had stopped trying to play with Uzumaki Naruto's mind, and was instead musing on past memories that never went away.

Like Gaara's.

"Death."

"Yeah?" Uzumaki Naruto bit. "So what? You can think that way if you want." He glanced at his hands for a moment, then thrust it in Neji's direction. "People tell me I just don't know when to give up."

Uzumaki Naruto crouched, swiping his fingers through the blood. Then he stood, each movement slow and deliberate, and turned to Neji, holding out his bloody fist. Neji seemed surprised by it. A few drops of red dripped off his fingers to the floor. "I vow to win!"

Uzumaki Naruto's hands flew together. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

No smoke erupted; the air around Uzumaki Naruto shimmered and just like that, like magic, the arena was filled with clones. Almost like the time Fumiko had lost control and put every last bit of her chakra into the Clone technique- only this technique was stronger.

How much power did this boy have? Fumiko smiled. A lot.

The clones and an owner- mixed in somewhere- charged Neji if not with blinding speed, than an impressive one. However, the heavy charge was more a show of brute force than tactful blurs.

Neji engaged the first one; a swift punch, block, block, punch, chop to the neck. Then two more yelled, "Hey!" and jumped at him, only to be dodged entirely- swift slide to the left, roll, upright again. Neji blocked the third clone's fist on his arm, then ducked under a fourth blow.

Fumiko tracked their movement with her eyes the best she could. He leaped back from another clone ad turned in time to deflect a swing and engage, blocking and swiping and flipping over the fighter's shoulder, landing away from him.

"This is ridiculous," an Uzumaki Naruto said in frustration. "We're not even getting close to this guy!"

"Think I can be fooled with a trick like that?" Neji said with a smug, cold tone, and rushed forward. He blurred through them so that he almost looked like comic frames, there and there and there all at once.

He halted, threw his palm forward, stabbed into an Uzumaki Naruto's chest.

"You're the one out of range for fear of my striking your chakra points." Neji said. "Like this. The more the others attack, the more you stand out for holding back."

Fumiko smiled slightly. She understood Neji's train of thought, really, she did- most likely it would be best to stay out of the fighting and let your clones do the work. Fumiko would have done it. Gaara would have done it. But...

"I vow to win!"

Uzumaki Naruto seemed to be the more down and dirty, no-plan type. Except, this was a plan. A very simply genius one.

Clones exploded everywhere. One, two, three, four, five- gone, gone, gone. But that was perfect.

But still. Neji's vision would pose a problem for any kind of attack- Fumiko still didn't know which clone could be which master, but at the rapid rate at which they were disappearing, she figured she'd find out soon enough.

Fumiko could see Neji's mocking grin from the stands.

"You're the real one, aren't you?"

Nope.

Neji stepped back. "I told you it was pointless."

The clone laughed. "Oh yeah? And I told you it was a mistake to count me out."

The clone exploded.

Neji whipped around just as the remaining two Uzumaki Narutos leaped forward, fists clenched.

"You thought I'd be too much of a chicken to attack you myself?" Uzumaki Naruto yelled loudly, throwing his arm forward.

And punched him. In the face.

Fumiko's smile was twitchy- violence, she still wasn't used to it- but she grinned. There you go, Uzumaki Naruto, she thought. Way to go...

Wait.

Why wasn't Neji flying back?

Suddenly, both the clone and the ninja froze in the air and spasmed like they were being electrocuted. Uzumaki Naruto's fist was repelled back, and Fumiko realized that somehow, impossibly, Hyuga Neji hadn't been hit.

The ground rumbled and shattered underneath the Hyuga's feet; he lowered as a crater blew itself through the rock. Both Uzumaki Narutos were thrown back, and one burst into white smoke as soon as it hit the dirt. The real Uzumaki Naruto skidded to a painful-looking stop.

Right away he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Huh- what the heck was that?"

"Baki, what-"

"I don't know." he answered before Fumiko could finish phrasing her question. "I haven't done any research on the Hyuga clan. Clearly I should have..."

Fumiko looked back toward the fight. Hyuga Neji stared down at Uzumaki Naruto, and she could almost hear the curling smirk that most likely twisted his face.

"Did you really think you'd won?"

Uzumaki Naruto scrambled to his feet. By now she easily recognized his Shadow Clone Jutsu symbol. She was beginning to realize that that was his best move, his Ace up his sleeve, only now it wasn't so secret. "We'll see about that!"

More smoke, more clones. Fumiko wondered where Uzumaki Naruto was pulling all of this chakra from- according to Gaara's old texts and sensei from the Academy, the Shadow Clone Jutsu was a Jonin-level technique that required copious amounts of chakra and stamina. Obviously, Uzumaki Naruto was stronger than the others thought of him.

The clones rushed Neji, circling him. Neji didn't flinch or even twitch to look at the ones behind him, but Fumiko had the suspicion that he could see them- somehow, impossibly. The byakugan he used was more powerful than just peering into a person.

Neji crouched. As the clones closed in, he grunted and whirled, palm shooting outward in a full circle. Fumiko thought she understood now- it was kind of like his Gentle Fist taijutsu technique, only in a spin. A three-hundred-and-sixty degree spin that made it impossible to avoid.

The clones flew back and hit the ground, poofing away like they were made of air. All except for one.

"This is the end for you." Neji said finally, watching Uzumaki Naruto struggle on the ground passively. Uzumaki Naruto wiped at his mouth. "You're in range. And you can't escape my eight trigrams."

Uzumaki Naruto wobbled back to his feet. Neji crouched, spreading his arms to the left, then out into a straight line.

"Gentle Fist Art: Eight trigrams, sixty-four palms." Neji blurred forward. "Eight trigrams: two palm!" Uzumaki Naruto skidded back; Neji was in front of him, fingers stuck deep into Uzumaki Naruto's chest and stomach. "Four palm! Eight palm! Sixteen palm!"

Blue bursts flashed against Uzumaki Naruto's orange jumpsuit. Fumiko drew a shocked breath as Neji's hands flew almost sporadically.

"Thirty-two palm! Sixty-four palm!"

Uzumaki Naruto cried out as he was blown backward violently. He hit the ground roughly and didn't get back up. Fumiko bit her lip, her hands coming up to her face. "Uzumaki Naruto..."

Neji relaxed his stance as the proctor stepped forward.

"Looks like it's over." the proctor said.

Fumiko let out a breath. No chakra, no strength, no ounce of power left.

"I have now struck all sixty-four of your chakra points." Neji said with finality. "You're lucky to still be breathing." He surveyed his opponent- Uzumaki Naruto was twitching on his knees, trying to get up.

"Well. must be frustrating. To realize how utterly hopeless it all was." Neji said cruelly. "This little dream of yours. You thought you could succeed through hard work alone. That's only an illusion."

"... No way." Fumiko watched with worried caution. Uzumaki Naruto lifted his head. Then, slowly, achingly slowly, he stuttered first to his knees, than to his feet.

Fumiko remembered a time when she had burned out all of her chakra, a trick move that had probably almost killed her. She had passed out instantly, but still Fumiko remembered the almost painful exhaustion; the way her veins throbbed like they had been collapsing- could she have stood?

No way.

Neji's next few words were muffled, as were Uzumaki Naruto's. They were speaking in low tones, one out of exhaustion, one out of shock.

Finally Neji spoke clearly. "It can't be..." he paused. "Stop this madness. You'll only get more of the same. I have nothing against you personally."

"Ha! That's touching. You're gonna make me cry." Uzumaki Naruto said sarcastically. "Anyway, I've got plenty against you."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You don't? And here I thought you were Mr. Know-it-all. You don't remember what you did to Hinata, huh? The way you worked on her with your mind games, tearing her down when she worked so hard to get here!"

"Never mind that." Neji said. "It doesn't concern you."

But it does, Fumiko thought. The same way it concerns me when people make fun of Gaara back in Suna. Uzumaki Naruto and Hinata were friends- surely Neji understood friendship? There was no way he couldn't... it was impossible to live without companionship.

"You mocked Hinata; calling her a failure! All that stuff about the Hyuga clan, main household, branch families- who cares? It doesn't give you the right to decide who's a failure, that's what I've got against you."

"Very well." Neji's voice was hard, mocking. "As you're so interested, I'll tell you about it. The Hyuga clan's heritage of hatred."

...

Gaara was wondering about the Uzumaki boy. Naruto. He had an unusual technique- as in, not one at all. Yet still he made it this far. Gaara had witnessed his battle against Inuzuka Kiba before; Naruto had won only by the skin of his teeth. But now he had absolutely nothing left-

And yet, he was antagonizing someone who could easily kill him.

"For generations, the main household of our clan has practiced a secret ninjutsu, known as the Curse Mark Jutsu."

From here, Gaara could clearly see the intense look of hatred on Neji Hyuga's face. Not angry at Naruto, but ready to take it out on him. No, Neji was angry about something else- the deep, painful anger that could only come from hating blood.

Gaara would know. He'd hated his father for most of his life.

Naruto's face softened with confusion. "Curse mark jutsu?"

"The curse mark is a symbol... of a bird locked in it's cage." Neji looked down, closing his eyes. "It's the mark of those that are bound to a destiny they cannot escape."

He reached back behind his hair, untying his hitai-ate. Gaara wasn't sure why for a moment, but when Neji's arm swung limply down by his side, headband clenched in his fingers, he saw why- a green marking like two crooks surrounding the letter X was branded across his forehead.

"That... is that... the curse mark..?" Naruto breathed.

"I was four years old when the leaders of my clan branded this symbol on my forehead with their curse mark jutsu." He said the words, dripping with sarcasm, spitting them like the name of the jutsu tasted foul. "On that same day, a great celebration took place in the hidden leaf village. After many years of war, a peace agreement had at last been made with the Land of Lightning. And they had sent the head Cloud ninja to sign the treaty and join in the celebration."

Gaara watched intently. He didn't really care who won this particular fight, but this story seemed important. He wasn't sure why.

"Everyone was there to welcome our old enemies. Every Genin, Chuunin, and Jonin in the leaf village. Only one clan was absent. The Hyuga clan. Because this was the day that the heir to the main household was to turn three. It was Lady Hinata's third birthday."

Neji looked back over his shoulder, into the crowds. Gaara couldn't discern who he was looking at.

"Her father, Lord Hyuga Hiashi, is sitting up there. Him and my father, Hizashi, are twin brothers. And yet... He entered the world first. So he is head of the family. The first born. While my father, his twin brother, was banished to a lesser branch of the family. It was then, on the day the heir to the main household turned three, that the curse mark was put on me, and I was made a bird in a cage. By my own uncle."

Gaara stared, unblinking, at the Hyuga beneath him. A bird in a cage, Gaara thought. Interesting choice of words. But why are you special? So many people are trapped. Perhaps not in the same way. But they were.

"You and this clan of yours; what's the point of it all? Why have a main family and a branch family? And this weird curse mark- what's it mean, anyway?"

"I can assure you of one thing," Neji said bitterly. "It's not simply for decoration. You see, this is more than a mark we wear. It is also the instrument with which they keep us in our place. We live with fear that they will use this curse mark to turn our brains to jelly any time they wish. Fear. That is what we live with. And we live with it every day."

Fear? Fear that you would lose it and kill your friend? Fear that a demon sealed inside of you would take over and ruin everything? Fear that one day an assassin would finally take your life or the most important thing to you?

Fear of pain. Gaara almost curled his lips disdainfully. Pain was nothing. Gaara would know- he had felt terrible pain in his fight with Lee. Anything physical would never compare. Neji had cut himself off too early; he had no idea what others went through.

"Only in death are we free of it. This is how the power of the byakugan is kept sealed away. Only the Hyuga possess the secret of this unique form of Kekkei Genkai. And of course, there are many that would steal it from us. That is why we exist- it is the purpose of the branch family to protect that secret, and to serve the keepers of that secret, the main household; obediently, and without question, for eternity. That is our destiny. Or was." Neji looked away again.

Was. The bitter word struck a chord somewhere, it was familiar. Was.

"Until that dreadful night. They went too far." Neji looked up again; wearily, and made eye contact with Naruto. "When they murdered my father."

Was.

"One night, someone entered the main household and abducted Lady Hinata. Lord Hiashi quickly caught and killed the man. And who was this intruder? Stealing through the shadows in the dead of night. Wearing a mask over his face? It was none other than the head Cloud ninja from the Land of Lightning. The man who had just signed an alliance with us. It was obvious to everyone that he was after the secret of the byakugan. But the Land of Lighting professed shock over the willful murder of their ninja. They claimed that the hidden leaf village was in violation of the treaty, and they demanded recompense."

Gaara kept his expression neutral. He could see where this was going.

"Things got worse and worse, until it looked like war would break out anew. The Leaf village wanted above all things to avoid a war, so at last they made a deal." Neji's voice was scornful.

"A deal?" Naruto asked, most likely despite himself.

"A life for a life." Neji replied. "The land of Lightning demanded the death of the person who had slain their ninja. If there was to be peace, Lord Hiashi must die. The Leaf village accepted their terms. And so, to avert a war, a man was killed. But not Hiashi."

Here Neji finally averted his eyes, looking down. His body trembled; he appeared close to dying. Gaara didn't pity him- he couldn't possibly- however, at least now he understood. Neji knew 'pain' in it's truest form. However...he appeared to believe he was the only one who had.

"My father, his twin brother, was killed in his place." Now, Neji finally snapped, eyes narrowed until they were almost closed, screaming, snarling. There were tears in his voice, but not on his face. "To protect the main Household! Only in death was my father finally free of this evil curse mark. They were so much alike," Neji said, glancing down at his hitai-ate. "Twin brothers. But their destinies had been determined long ago. When one was born a few seconds after the other."

He gripped it. Gaara could see the muscles in his hands from his spot on the waiting deck. Neji looked... tired.

"And this match is the same. Your fate was decided the moment I was chosen as your opponent." Neji regained his previous smug, sarcastic smirk. "It's your destiny to lose to me. And that's it."

"Oh, yeah? Well we won't know that until you beat me, will we?"

Neji frowned for a moment before reaching up to retie his headband. He seemed to disregard Naruto's words.

"Okay." Naruto said after a few seconds. "So your father was killed a long time ago, and I know it wasn't fair, and maybe you're upset about that. I understand. But that's got nothing to do with destiny. If you think I'm buying that, you're wrong!"

"You will never understand," Neji said coldly. Without another word, he crouched just slightly, palms facing his opponent. His Byakugan throbbed to life, and he dashed forward to finish his fight. His palm hit Naruto solidly in the chest, and the orange-clad determined ninja flew back with a cry. Neji straightened and watched without interest as Naruto slammed into the dirt. "Proctor." he said. "It's over."

There was a few silent moments as Naruto writhed and struggled on the ground, trying to stand. Like little Mai had, when she first began training in the Academy, begging Gaara to train her so that she could defend herself.

"Mai," Gaara said, concern evident in his voice. "Stop."

"No," she spat. Mai was dug into the ground, nearly a crater in the sand. She was battered with a split lip, and her knuckles were already blooming with dark purple bruises. It was nearly impossible for Gaara to be 'gentle' with his sand- he wasn't trying to kill her but that was all he could do. Her black hair was wild, but it was always wild. "Again."

"Mai, you're going to hurt yourself."

She barked out a laugh. "Gaara, if I haven't already hurt myself, then I think I need glasses, 'cause I could swear I'm hurt all over." She staggered to her feet and raised her fists. "C'mon. Hit me."

"Hmph." Neji said finally, turning away. Gaara was pulled from his thoughts. "You're a failure." He took a step away in the other direction, like the match was over. He didn't spare Naruto a second glance.

"Failure!"

"Failure!"

"Failure!"

"B-but I can't race," Fumiko stuttered from beside him. "I can't fail if I can't try!"

Gaara didn't much like this Neji.

"Wh... wait!" Naruto forced out. Neji stopped. Slowly, hands on his knees and shaking, Naruto raised himself back to his feet. "Don't walk away from me! I'm not... done yet. I don't quit, and I don't go back on my word. That's my nindo; my ninja way."

Gaara remembered the other girl, Hinata, saying those exact same words. From her reaction to this boy's support during her match, Gaara surmised that she had imitated him- his nindo and his pride.

"Heh. I've heard those words before." Neji said.

"You and your stupid destiny," Naruto managed. "Well, if you really believe it, why are you the one walking away?"

"You impudent little brat." Neji said it like it was a fact and not an insult; like he was disappointed somehow. "Why waste my breath explaining it to you? We are all given a destiny at birth. And it's pointless to fight against it." Neji's voice suddenly shook with anger. "You don't know what it's like to be branded with a mark that sets you apart." He pointed an accusing finger at Naruto. "A mark that can never be wiped away!"

Naruto was breathing heavily. He didn't answer for a full minute. "Oh, yeah," he said at last, and he sounded ancient. "I know what that's like." he looked up. Gaara couldn't quite discern his expression, a mix between mocking and amused and sad. "Well? Big deal. Who cares?"

Neji's byakugan deepened. "You... worthless... little..!"

"Man," Naruto said. "You think you've got troubles? I've got news for you, Neji; you're not the only special one here. Did you ever think Hinata might be suffering as much as you are? It's not her fault that her father was born first, but you resent her for it. You disrespect her, even when she's trying so hard to improve herself! All she wanted was your respect; that's what she was fighting for, even though it almost killed her!

"And what was that all about, anyway? I thought it was your destiny to serve the main household, not to beat it to a bloody pulp! After all you said about how you can't fight your destiny; you don't really believe in it either, do you?"

Naruto coughed. Neji smirked.

"I have blocked all sixty-four of your chakra points. How are you planning to keep fighting if you can't use your chakra against me? It's fitting that you sympathize with Hinata, because you're about to share her fate."

"Oh really? You think that byakugan of yours sees everything! You know everyone's weakness, right?!"

"That's right. But if you think you're the one who can prove me wrong, well be my guest."

"You got it. I'm gonna show you you're wrong about a lot of things, starting right now!"

Gaara Hm'd slightly in thought. Naruto certainly was persistent, but how anybody could fight with no chakra was beyond him. Maybe in villager brawling, but not in a ninja fight. It could never work. If Gaara himself had no chakra, he would be unable to attack. So how could Naruto possibly continue?

There was silence then. Naruto closed his eyes.

A shudder raced up Gaara's spine as a disturbing, powerful, familiar chakra pulse rippled through the air. It made Shukaku angry.

What is it!

Damn it, Gaara thought. I almost thought he was going to stay out of things today.

Kill it! NOW!

"Proctor. This has gone on long enough. I suggest you stop the match. If he's foolish enough to continue to fight, I will not be responsible for what happens to him."

"Hmph." the proctor muttered. "Fine."

"Heh!" the sound ripped out of Naruto's throat.

"It's pointless, I told you."

Gaara realized that Naruto had placed his hands in a jutsu symbol. Neji seemed confident enough, but now Gaara's eyes widened, because something was quivering through the air. It pumped Gaara's blood full of killing intent and adrenaline, and suddenly he had to clamp his fingers around his crossed arms and bite his tongue to keep from challenging the 'threat' on Shukaku's command.

"Aaahhh!"

"Why bother? You have no chakra to use."

"Aaahh-!"

Neji just shook his head and smirked cruelly, almost desperately. "Why fight a hopeless battle, trying to defy your destiny?"

Naruto's voice was firm and final.

"'cause people called me a failure." A pause. "I'll prove 'em wrong."

There was an intense flare of chakra, and now it could be sensed by every person in the arena, most likely felt even by the villagers. It blew through the air like a violent gale storm, ripping thoughts to shreds and pulling fear from every heart. There was something truly vile in it. Wind blew, bits and pieces of rock rose into the air, vibrating so quickly that they tore themselves to dust.

Neji recoiled, face twisting with disbelief.

Gaara just stared.

The boy in orange that Fumiko had taken an interest in, Naruto, ran past him toward Lee. But as they passed each other, Naruto looked at him; not quite a glare, and not quite a look of recognition. Gaara couldn't place it, but something shot through him like an arrow and made him stop. He stared back after Naruto as he joined the medical-nin surrounding Lee's unconscious body.

Familiarity? Something stirred nervously in Shukaku's consciousness.

Gaara shook his head and continued to the stairs.

The same rush of something hot bubbled in his veins.

"He can act like a demon if he wants to, but you know what? I got the real thing inside of me."

Was he telling the truth?

Gaara didn't know what that byakugan was looking at right now, but if it could really see chakra... Gaara could see something shimmering through the air- well, it was more like the Shukaku sensed it and somehow, on some level, Gaara was getting a visual, but there was something thrashing in the air behind and above Naruto, writhing like long, terrifying tails of energy.

Neji had to put his hands up to protect his face, the pressure of the wind was becoming so strong. His clothes rippled.

Gaara heard Naruto's voice over the noise and roar of his power, but he couldn't make out the words. He was shaking now, shaking-

DEATH! DEATH! KILL IT! 

The wind faded. Through his Shukaku-vision, Gaara could see something resembling curling flames spread across Naruto's skin, hot and powerful like something unreal. Gaara had felt energy like this twisting in body before, but never at this level of intensity.

Naruto clenched his fist experimentally. Neji, on guard now, growled and spread his feet, bringing up his hands defensively. The proctor stepped back.

Naruto blurred and was gone. Less than a second later, he was I the air, soaring like he was flying. In his hands were shuriken, these he threw with no hesitation. Neji whipped around reflexively. "Rotation!"

A whirlwind of power. Neji snatched up two of the repelled shuriken out of the air and reached into the pouch on his thigh even as Naruto sprung off a wall straight at him, fingers curled in front of him like claws. His expression was fierce.

"Take this!" Neji snarled, crossing his arms and sending the shuriken shooting toward Naruto at a blinding speed. The words had barely left Neji's lips before Naruto blurred again, and was gone again. The shuriken lodged into the wall with rapid-fire thuds. Gaara flicked his eyes over the arena, trying to locate the power-struck ninja.

There. Neji sensed him a split second after Gaara did, and leaped out of the way as Naruto slashed upward with an uppercut. Both ninja yanked out kunai, throwing them as they skidded away from each other. The weapons clanged in midair and the ninja were off like shots to meet in the middle, grabbing up their blades and slashing wildly at the other.

Both blocked. Both skidded back again, only on opposite sides of the arena. Dust flew.

"Okay, you." Naruto said. "So I hear you like close combat, huh?"

He charged Neji like a bull. The stony soil cracked and caved under his every footfall, and dust rose in the air behind him like a trail of smoke. His chakra levels were off the charts now, and it made Gaara extremely nervous- there was no doubt he could beat the ninja in a fight if he had to, but- still. 

"Maybe the Hyuga way to cave into destiny is not mine!" Naruto bellowed, "If you think it's futile to fight then don't Just stand there and take it!"

Neji raised his kunai like he was planning to defend with it, then, at the last second, seemed to realize what would happen.

Instead, he tried his rotation.

"I'll change the way of the Hyuga clan!" Naruto yelled and met Neji's blade with his. Flaring energy brimming with blistering strength filled the arena, white rising to blind Gaara. Right before the release, Naruto yelled, "After I become Hokage!"

An explosion rocked the arena. Somewhere, for once in the back of his mind, Gaara worried that Fumiko had fallen. If she had been standing or even leaning forward in her seat, the tremors would have sent her sprawling. Sand filtered the air in the way Gaara didn't understand, keeping the dust from his eyes, but that didn't mean he could see. The result of the implosion was shrouded from view.

When the dust cleared, there were two smoking, crushed holes in the ground.

From a crumbled pile of jagged stones, Hyuga Neji's shaking, pale arm burst out. Soon, the rest of him followed. He tugged himself free of the rubble, coughing and choking on rocks and dust.

...

Fumiko's mouth was bleeding again. Between Neji's awful story and Naruto's incredible explosion of strength, the twin craters in the ground, and Neji being the only one standing- well, crouching and stumbling- you could easily say that Fumiko was very, very worried.

There was dust in her eyes and some in her mouth, but she didn't particularly care at the moment. She blinked her watering eyes and strained to see Uzumaki Naruto's hole.

Just what had that business with the power been, anyway? Even Fumiko had been able to sense that chilling blast of chakra, almost like Gaara's when he was out of control, only different, crueler, more intense than Gaara's ever had been. Uzumaki Naruto... he couldn't...

He couldn't be a jinchuriki...

... could he?

Shakily Neji stumbled to his feet, swaying, and took a few steps away from his hole. He was breathing heavily.

From watching Neji's 'rotation' Fumiko thought she had figured out how it worked- it repelled any attack so well that it actually reflected the attack straight back at the opponent. During the explosion Fumiko had wondered offhandedly while she struggled to stay on her seat if Neji had succeeded in completing his rotation. From the way he was staggering around, she would guess almost.

She could see Uzumaki Naruto now, curled halfway into the fetal position in his crater.

"Sorry." Neji said breathlessly. "But this is reality."

Reality.

No way, Fumiko thought suddenly. If the chakra had really distributed itself evenly enough that Neji had been injured halfway through his rotation, then there was no way Uzumaki Naruto would have been knocked unconscious- he was too determined for that. Fumiko thought hard. So how would he have possibly...

"You're a failure," Neji continued.

The only technique that Uzumaki Naruto had used the entire battle!

"This match is over."

There was a rushing sound of cracking rock. Fumiko didn't have time to process the noise and apparently, neither did Neji.

Neji was being lifted off the ground by the time Fumiko's brain caught up. Uzumaki Naruto had burst out of the ground, the one place Fumiko hadn't expected him to burst out of. A spot of blood bloomed in the air above Neji's tilted face briefly, like a red flower, before Neji was sent hurtling into the air and then down again. He bounced off the dirt and finally stopped a good ten feet away from where Uzumaki Naruto touched down.

There was quiet. The air seemed still. The dust settled around Neji. Uzumaki Naruto breathed like he couldn't.

"I..." Neji spluttered. "c-can't move!" As Uzumaki Naruto stepped closer, Neji said, "I should've guessed you'd use that Shadow Clone Jutsu. It's your specialty, after all... I was careless."

"For the record," Uzumaki Naruto panted, "I failed the graduation exam three times. 'Cause there was this one jutsu... that was always on the exam. And it tripped me up every time. It was the one jutsu... that I just couldn't master." There was a long pause. "My clones were pathetic. That's right, I flunked the Clone jutsu every time. "

A bird took flight from the arena. Fumiko hadn't noticed it perching there before but now it spiraled into the air above the competitors.

"So don't come whining to me with this destiny stuff- and stop trying to tell me you can't change what you are. You can do it too. Because after all, unlike me, you're not a failure."

The proctor raised a hand. Fumiko could hear the smile in his voice. "The winner is: Uzumaki Naruto."

"You did it, Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

The arena filled with clapping and the sound of cheering.

Fumiko cheered louder than anyone around her.

...

After Uzumaki Naruto's battle and the crowd settled down a bit, for whatever reason, there was a general murmur and a lot of shouting and booing as the corwd realized that Uchiha Sasuke wasn't present. However, for whatever reason- and Fumiko had no clue what that reason was- Sasuke wasn't disqualified. They simply moved his match to the end.

That meant Kankuro was up next. He would be fighting against Shino, the bug-wielding shinobi from the preliminaries.

"Then on to the next battle!" the proctor announced. "Shino and Kankuro, come down."

There was a silent minute, which was odd. Kankuro usually would have been boasting or at least saying something loud right away...

"Proctor!" Kankuro called suddenly. "I withdraw!"

Shock pushed through Fumiko's veins. "What?"

"I withdraw, so please, advance to the next match."

"Baki, what's he doing? Why is Kankuro withdrawing? He trained hard, he can definitely-"

"Be quiet!"

"But, Baki;+

"Fumiko," Baki rumbled. Fumiko flinched. "I said be quiet."

The crowd once again filled with boos. There were angry cries of dissent from all across the seats, rippling like a live thing in the way talk sometimes did.

Fumiko was bewildered. Sure, it was fine for Kankuro to forfeit- a little bitter for Shino, perhaps, but the way Fumiko saw it, if you didn't want to fight you shouldn't have to. But that was just it- since when did Kankuro not want to fight? He never backed down from anything. Forfeiting the match wasn't like him at all.

"Due to Kankuro's withdrawal, Aburame Shino wins by default."

What in the world was going on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Kankuro didn't originally mean to forfeit, but that's just how I'm writing it. So there.


	21. The Softest Dream

People were about ready to riot in the stands. Fumiko couldn't understand why they were all so upset- why did they want to sit here and watch fight after fight after fight? Violence wasn't that important, in her opinion, but she supposed that sentiment would be lost here.

She still had no idea what was going on. Every once in a while, Baki muttered things under his breath, like "did he really..." or "could he really have done it?" He had been doing that since Sasuke's match had been delayed, and so she wondered if he was muttering about Sasuke, but every time she asked a question Baki snapped at her.

Looking across the arena to the waiting area, Fumiko could just make out Gaara's blotch of red hair and Kankuro's dark outfit. It was one of those moments when she almost wished she had specialized her training to some of the more subtle ninja ways, like perceptive eyesight. She hadn't thought she would have needed it at the time. Fumiko wanted to see Kankuro's expression- was he sheepish, nervous?

She recalled the tense silence on the way to the arena. They weren't planning anything, were they? In hindsight, there were a few signs she could have picked up on. But what was it? It couldn't be that serious... There had to be a reason for Kankuro's withdrawal. Did it have anything to do with Sasuke's disappearance?

Her thoughts were cut off when a ripple of wind gusted across the arena. Temari flipped her fan with one hard stroke, jumping onto it and coasting down into the arena. Temari landed lightly. She folded her fan closed. For a moment she and the proctor spoke, and then he looked up. "Let's start the next match then. Hey! You up there! Come on down."

Nara Shikamaru. Fumiko had befriended him a while ago during her hospital shifts when he had realized that she was a decent Shogi player. He had had to teach her how to play the game, as she had had no prior experience with the game, but it was like chess, and she had seen that played a few times. During that time Fumiko had realized how intelligent Shikamaru was- incredibly intelligent, and she had told Temari as much.

"Nara Shikamaru. Come on."

Normally, Fumiko would have thought Shikamaru was dragging his feet because he was nervous. Against Temari, she supposed he could be- he had been there during the preliminaries, after all, he knew that Temari was strong- but that didn't exactly fit with what he had told her.

"I'm just not looking forward to the match, okay?" Shikamaru muttered when she inquired about his training. He paused for a moment before moving his Knight. "Check."

Fumiko hummed in thought, then slid her Rook to defend her King. "Why? Are you nervous?"

Shikamaru scoffed and took her Rook. "Of course not."

With two fingers, Fumiko moved one of her pawn pieces, swiftly taking Shikamaru's Rook. She could see the trap he was setting up, and if she wasn't careful, he would defeat her in one fell swoop. "Well then what is it? Obviously something's wrong."

"I just don't like fighting girls, okay? It feels weird when I hurt them. Besides, fighting's such a drag. It takes too much work."

Fumiko blinked. Then she laughed. "Well, sugar. Don't let Temari hear that."

Shikamaru moved his Bishop. Fumiko realized with a start that the trap she had foreseen had been a setup. Her King was surrounded on all sides by pieces that had been allegedly unimportant the entire game. "Checkmate."

"Sugar."

"Yeah, you can do it, Shikamaru!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled.

Fumiko started when Shikamaru suddenly fell forward over the safety railing. She realized with worry, right when Shikamaru slammed into the ground with a puff of dust, that Uzumaki Naruto had accidentally pushed him over the bar. Temari looked at him boredly.

Shikamaru just laid there. Fumiko figured that he wasn't actually hurt, just a little annoyed, plus that fact that he didn't really want to participate in the match at all. Directly next to her, a man shouted loudly. Fumiko jumped a mile.

"Come on! What are you doing?"

All around her the cries burst and spread like a mean wildfire.

"Get up!"

"Come on!"

"Get going already!"

"We want to see a match!"

"Boo!"

"Boo!"

"Boo!"

Suddenly they were throwing things, crumbled bits of paper and food and soda cans. One can hit Fumiko directly in the back of her skull and her head jerked forward. The can clattered to the floor as she brought her hand up, turning around, startled. The back of her head throbbed.

"Ow! Sugar! Hey, excuse me-"

"Get up!"

"Come on, you stupid-"

"Hey," Fumiko tried to interrupt, raising her voice above the din. "Calm down, please, just wait a minute-"

Nobody heard her, or maybe they were just ignoring her. In fact, she was fairly certain that the crumpled paper ball that hit her directly between the eyes was intentional. Though, they probably hadn't meant anything bad by it- it was paper after all and not something harder- just that they wanted her to shut up.

This was awful. Making someone fight! Bitter, bitter, she thought, he shouldn't have to!

Temari slammed her fan into the ground. Fumiko couldn't hear what was said over the rise of angry voices around her. She was being jostled around as the people grew more and more upset. Baki, however, was more still than a stone, and he didn't appear to even acknowledge what was going around.

"Ah!" Fumiko yelped as her head tilted back. "Excuse me, but I think your fingers are in my hair!"

"Come on! Come on! Get up and fight!" Uzumaki Naruto she could hear all the way across the arena. Fumiko pulled her longish brown hair back over her shoulder just in case and looked over at the bright yellow and orange silhouette that was Uzumaki Naruto. "Get it together, Shikamaru! You gonna get goin' sometime this year?"

Fumiko assumed that Temari was angry, because she dashed forward with her fan in one hand.

"The proctor didn't start the match yet!" Fumiko blurted.

There was an explosion of dust. Fumiko had to wonder just how heavy Temari's fan was. She bit her lip. Please don't have hit Shikamaru, she prayed internally, because that might have just smashed his head open if it did. The crowd around her instantly quieted.

The smoke cleared. Shikamaru was not, in fact, leaking on the ground- he was standing just in front of Temari, pressed up against the wall somehow a few feet above Temari's head. Her fan had sunk into the rock where Shikamaru had been lying motionless just seconds before. Now, Fumiko could hear what was said.

"It really doesn't make any difference to me whether I become a Chuunin or not," Shikamaru said in his familiar half-hearted drawl. "But I guess maybe I shouldn't let myself get beaten by a female."

Or maybe he wouldn't take her advice after all.

"So?" he continued. "Let's do it."

"Hargh!" Temari yelled, swinging her fan like a club.

Another boom and another explosion of light brown dust. When it faded, there was nothing there save for a crack in the wall and two kunai knives lodged into the stone. That must have been how he stood against the wall like that. The arena was empty, though...

Temari faced the tree, sliding her fan open defensively.

"Shadow possession jutsu!"

Oh- the shadow of the tree. Shikamaru must have been hiding in it, waiting to see if she would come within range. Fumiko doubted Temari would fall for that. She would probably just try and blow him out of the tree with her wind.

"Go for it, Shikamaruuu!" Ino cheered from farther away. It looked like she was attacking the air, but Fumiko figured it was more how like Lee punched and kicked the air when he got excited. "Use your secret ultimate technique on her and take her down!" There was a pause as she probably spoke to someone else. The she shrilled, "Yeah, you can do it!"

"Get your butt in gear!" Uzumaki Naruto called. "Let's go, Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru stood up so that Fumiko could see him. He had been under the tree, she realized. Just at a weird angle that she couldn't see him from.

"Ninja art!" Temari yelled. "Wind type jutsu!"

Wind flowed into the arena seemingly from nowhere, rushing through the audience. Fumiko's hair was ripped back over her shoulders, and just because, the can that had rolled by her foot picked up with the gale and smacked into her chin. Fumiko grunted, shaking her head and gripping her jaw.

"Oww..."

Her leg hurt. Her face hurt. The back of her head hurt. Fumiko was straining to still be cheerful, but Kankuro had just forfeited and Gaara might have lost the chance for his match, Fumiko was missing something, and now the arena seemed to be attacking her. Wind stung her eyes and she squinted.

When it finally faded, there was a wall of smoke and dust.

A black line shot like an arrow out from underneath it towards Temari, who jumped backward, flipping one, two three times. When she stopped the shadow kept on coming, and for a second as Temari stumbled back, Fumiko thought it as going to attach to her. But it stopped just short of Temari's legs before dissipating back where it came from. Temari slashed at the dirt quickly with her again-closed fan, marking the range of Shikamaru's attack.

"Almost got me," she called snarkily to Shikamaru once the dust cleared. Shikamaru was crouching with his fingers held in his shadow possession jutsu symbol. "Aren't you clever, with that shadow possession jutsu of yours. You can manipulate any shadow you're in. The walls shadow, for instance. But there's a limit, isn't there? No matter how thin you stretch it, it'll only go so far. Isn't that right?"

Shikamaru's response was inaudible. He looked for tired than he should have been, which was odd- had Temari's attack injured him? It didn't look like it...

Temari stood, jamming her fan into the soil and heaving herself to her feet. As she did, Shikamaru touched his fingers together, cupped in a circle. Fumiko guessed his eyes were closed, too- he did this when Shogi wasn't playing to his advantage. It was a focus thing.

There was a long pause as Shikamaru thought. Temari didn't get any closer, keeping just out of Shikamaru's shadow jutsu range. She probably thought that was some sort of hand sign. Fumiko wondered what he was thinking so hard about. Finally, Shikamaru looked up.

"So- you've got some fighting spirit, after all," Temari said. She opened her fan. Then she reared it back, shouting, and swung it forward like a long, flat baseball bat. Wind blew into the arena, more focused this time so that it didn't fly into the audience. Scars cut into the trees. The blurry outline of Shikamaru that Fumiko saw through the gust darted sideways.

"It's no use hiding!" Temari raised her voice over the storm of wind.

"Come on, Shikamaru, do something!" Ino yelled.

The breeze died down. The few wisps of it that were left carried leaves up into the sky like little dancers. Temari looked around anxiously, face twisted. "You can't hide forever," she growled loudly. "Come out, coward!"

Temari swung her fan again. There was a bang as the concentrated force of it hit the space between the only two trees in the arena, and a loud whistling as the excess rushed through the area. Through the billow of dust, something small and dark flew out. A kunai.

Temari dosged sideways, then raised her fan just high enough to deflect the second shot. Another shadow surged toward Temari, who just stayed crouched on the other side of the line, seemingly uncaring. But, suddenly, she jumped back again, and Fumiko realized that this time the shadow had stretched past the range line. Shikamaru must have faked the first try.

"You're pretty quick on your toes," Shikamaru said almost conversationally. Now he was standing in plain sight minus his crop jacket. His shadow was stretched out in front of him.

"Now I see what you've been up to," Temari said. Her voice was shaken. "You weren't just hiding, you were killing time, waiting for the sun to get lower, and the shadow of that wall to get longer. The longer the shadows, the farther your range is, right?"

Fumiko shaded her eyes to the light and looked up. The sun really had lowered, but not by that much. Perhaps that was why the shadow had only gotten a few inches longer? But it seemed more like that was Shikamaru's shadow than the wall's.

"Temari!" Kankuro suddenly shouted. "Over your head!"

Fumiko's eyes flickered down a little. There was something floating in the air; a tiny parachute or something. Fumiko peered at it a moment before making the connection- it was Shikamaru's jacket. Temari leaped back again. The tiny shadow of the little parachute had spread like a stain, but she avoided it. Fumiko sighed in relief. If Temari was caught in that, it was game over.

Temari lurched back, then dashed sideways. The thin black line curved like a snake and chased her. Fumiko's eyes widened. That blotch of a shadow from the parachute had increased his shadow jutsu by that much?

"Now I've got you!" Shikamaru cried.

Temari dodged, jumped, and basically ran away from the dangerous dark arrow. Left, right, back, forward, don't touch the shadow. Like a game of tag. Finally she skidded to a stop, crouching, the dirt kicking up behind her. The shadow stopped just short. The parachute collapsed as it ran out of air and fluttered to the ground like a dying bird.

Temari stood, swinging her fan with a dramatic blush of wind around her that ruffled her clothes.

Temari looked up at the sun, shading her eyes. The shadow of the wall was getting longer and longer by the minute, and pretty soon Temari would be running all over the place because the shadows wouldn't even have a range. She slammed her open fan into the ground ferociously, creating a barrier in front of her.

Fumiko was to Temari's back, so she noticed when Temari began to create hand symbols.

And then for whatever reason, just before the last symbol for a Clone, she stopped.

Frozen.

"Oh no!" Fumiko stammered out. "The- the hole!"

She hadn't seen it before. Just like that irrelevant pawn to trap her King, Shikamaru had tricked Temari into worrying about an entirely different problem- a trap in which Shikamaru had hidden a trap. Temari was caught like a fly in a web. Now that she looked Fumiko could see the line of black spreading from the hole.

"It took a while," Shikamaru said. "But my shadow possession finally worked. Look behind you- I'll let you."

Shikamaru craned his neck and Temari followed suite.

"Don't you recognize that hole?" Shikamaru said casually. "It's where Naruto popped out of the ground and knocked Neji for a loop. The hole in front of you is where Naruto went into the ground. The two are connected."

"Now I see," Temari said, half to Shikamaru and half to herself. "I never thought of the shadows beneath the ground."

Shikamaru watched her dully. "That was your mistake."

Shikamaru walked normally toward the middle of the arena and Temari had no choice but to do the same. Fumiko sighed. Temari was going to be so frustrated later, muttering to herself and writing plans on paper on how she could have avoided it. She didn't take well to being outsmarted.

Shikamaru raised his hand high into the air, as did Temari.

"Yeah! He did it! He pulled off an offset!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled, throwing his fist into the air.

"You got her!" Ino cheered. "Way to go!"

"Okay, that's it." Shikamaru said suddenly. "I give up."

Fumiko's sore jaw nearly slammed into the concrete step below her.

The crowd burst into more displeased shouting.

"What? What did you say?"

"I used up all my chakra on that shadow possession jutsu," he said. There was a shrug in his voice. "I'm good for about another ten seconds, that's it. Bummer. And here I'd already planned out the next two hundred moves in my head. But, my chakra is running low." He lowered his hand.

Temari lowered hers a moment later. Fumiko could only imagine the flabbergasted look on her face.

Shikamaru raised his hands in a half-executed shrug. "Anyway, if I was to win this thing, it would just be more work."

Okay. Fumiko knew that he was a little lazy. She had been in Uzumaki Naruto's and Chouji's rooms when he was visiting enough to know that much. But to quit a match he had so obviously already one just so that he didn't have to fight more..? Wouldn't it have made more sense to win and then forfeit the next match?

Fumiko shook her head and laughed. Oh, well. The judges probably wouldn't take Temari's 'win' into account anyway. Shikamaru still had a huge chance of becoming a Chuunin- after all, he had admitted to thinking two hundred steps ahead. His brain was amazing. Shikamaru's mind was clear as crystal.

"The winner is: Temari!" the proctor announced.

Shikamaru groaned to himself, putting a hand to his neck. "Man, I'm beat." He rolled his shoulder.

"What the heck was that?" Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed. "Forfeiting the match when he had it won! Jeez! Man, that really ticks me off! Of all the lazy-!" There was a ring of metal as Uzumaki Naruto leaped off the railing into the arena. "I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind!"

Shikamaru ignored him as Uzumaki Naruto ran towards him, and continued to stretch. He rolled his neck, leaned back and forth, and then tilted so he was leaning backward. Uzumaki Naruto ran up to him and then stopped, pointing a finger in Shikamaru's face.

"Hey! I wanna talk to you, you idiot!"

"Who are you calling an idiot, idiot?" Shikamaru grunted.

"Why'd you give up?" Uzumaki Naruto bellowed in an almost whiny tone. "Are you really that lazy or are you just a big chicken?"

"Sugar. He just didn't want to fight anymore." Fumiko said aloud, scratching the back of her neck. "Obviously he wasn't scared, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hey, it's over." Shikamaru said dismissively, voice a little strained as he stretched. "Let's just forget it, okay?"

"Are you kidding? No! It's not okay! You had that match won and you-"

"Would you zip it?" Shikamaru groaned.

"And then you just go and give up! What kind of guy does that-?"

"Are you forgetting? There's another match."

"I mean to quit, right when- huh?" Uzumaki Naruto asked. His tone went from outraged to questioning as he slammed the brakes on his previous train of thought. "Another match? Huh... Oh yeah, that's right!"

Uzumaki Naruto's words stirred up the crowd. Fumiko looked over at the waiting deck. Gaara's turn. Uchiha, Uchiha, Uchiha, that was all she heard for the first few minutes of general titter. Uchiha would win. This mystery kid didn't stand a chance against the Uchiha. I heard that the Uchiha...

"What about Gaara?" She said to the man beside her as she waited. "He's strong too."

"Who're you? Oh, the girl from the hospital, Fumiko, right?"

"Uh- yep." Fumiko said, startled. "I don't think I know you, though..."

"You mentioned Gaara. And the prosthetic on your leg. My wife's the hospital clerk."

"Oh! You mean Miyoka?"

"She talks about you all the time. I can't believe you were sitting right next to me and I didn't even realize it." He chuckled. "So... you're friends with the mystery guy from Suna?"

The crowd was getting more and more unruly as time passed, and the topic of conversation switched from who would win to where the ungrateful Uchiha brat even was, and how long did he expect them to wait? Fumiko had to raise her voice to be heard over them Uzumaki Naruto was starting to yell as well.

"Yeah. That's me!" she said cheerily. "Anyway... about this Sasuke guy... he was usually unconscious when I rotated to his schedule. I didn't really get the chance to get to know him at all. Do you think..."

"I have no idea. He's not exactly punctual, but from what I've heard he's no quitter, either."

...

"Temari, what's up?" Kankuro said urgently. "Is he really not going to show?"

"He'll be here." Gaara said quietly. His siblings' heads whipped around to look at him Their eyes were wide, faces slack. "He'll definitely be here."

Gaara's words were almost bitter. If Sasuke didn't show up, the plan would fail. It wouldn't be Gaara's fault, or Fumiko's fault, but just a bad miscalculation. However... Gaara had seen the fire in the Uchiha boy's eyes. He knew Sasuke would come.

Below him, even Naruto was starting to grumble. The crowd was close, so close, to mutiny.

"All right, the time limit has officially expired." The proctor called loudly. "So I'm officially calling this match-"

There was a rush of wind and leaves. A less organized version of Gaara's Sand Sunshin, he surmised, only with a cover of leaves, not sand. Sasuke and Kakashi stood back to back, most likely to conserve chakra in the use of the attack, but it only made them look pettily dramatic.

"I told you he'd come."

...

Everybody was cheering. Fumiko gaped.

"Sorry we're late," Sasuke's sensei said. "You wouldn't believe the traffic."

"And you are?" the proctor asked with an amused smile like he already knew, which he probably did.

"I'm Sasuke." he said dully. "Sasuke Uchiha."

"Ha! I was starting to think you weren't coming, 'cause sooner or later you'd have to face me!" Uzumaki Naruto said loudly. There was pride and laughter in his voice.

"So what about you?" Sasuke said. "Did you win?"

"You know it!"

"Heh. Well don't get too full of yourself. You're still a loser."

Fumiko continued to gap, but Uzumaki Naruto didn't seem offended at all. In fact, he was smirking.

"Sorry if we kept you waiting," their sensei said, bringing one hand up to the back of his head. He gave a nervous laugh. "But, um... how late are we? I mean, it's not like Sasuke's... well, disqualified or anything, right?"

"Like master, like pupil, even down to your lousy sense of time," the proctor said.

"Well.. What about it?"

"You know you were so late, we extended the deadline for you, twice in fact. And it's lucky for you we did, because you just made it. No, he's not disqualified."

"Oh, that's a relief." Kakashi laughed. "You had me worried there for a minute."

"Just don't lose to that guy." Uzumaki Naruto warned.

"Got it." Sasuke replied.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Uzumaki Naruto said louder. "Don't lose. 'Cause I wanna fight you myself."

"Got it."

...

"Baki, I'll be right right back, okay?" Fumiko blurted, standing up. "I gotta say good luck to Gaara again."

She left before he could protest or pull her back down, sliding her way past the row of people. A few people muttered at her, but she'd been muttered at before so she didn't really mind. Now that Gaara was about to go up again, she couldn't help herself.

...

"Gaara!" Fumiko called as she finally turned into the solid metal competitors hallway. Luckily most of the guards were the same guards from the preliminaries and the first exam, so they recognized her, and only sighed before letting her through. "Heeyy, Gaara!"

"Fumiko?"

The voice drifted from just around a corner. She limped up to it and peered around the edge just in time to almost smack her face into his.

"Oh hey, hi I just came down really quick." she said in a rush. Then she laughed. "Baki's probably mad at me."

"Fumiko." Gaara reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "You need to go back to Baki."

"But-"

"Fumiko."

"Gaara."

He watched her for a minute. She raised her eyebrows. "I just want to walk you to the edge and wish you good luck. What's up, anyway? You're acting funny and Kankuro forfeited." She reached down, pulling the flap of her pouch up. She scooped sugar out of her bag and brought it up to her lips.

"Nothing." Gaara said too fast.

Fumiko started, accidentally choking on her sugar. She coughed for a full few seconds, and Gaara thumped on her back until it subsided. He opened his mouth, most likely to ask if she was okay, but Fumiko cut him off. "You..." she said, shocked. "You're lying to me!" Her eyes widened.

"Something's wrong." she put the brush down. "Gaara, you've been edgy all night. At first I thought it was just because of yesterday, but it isn't, is it? Gaara, what is it? Maybe I can help."

"I'll go get your aspirin." he muttered, and slipped out back into the hallway.

"Is this about Sasuke?" Fumiko called after him, and hobbled halfway out of the bathroom. She gripped the doorframe and put all of her weight on her real foot, biting her lip. "Are you nervous?"

He stopped, his back to her.

"Yeah..." he said slowly. "That's it."

"Have you been lying the entire time? What is it? What's wrong? You only lie for real when something's really wrong!"

"Fumiko." Gaara's fingers tightened. "Calm down."

"Gaara-"

"I'll explain everything later," he said. His blue eyes filled with guilt. "I swear I will. But I need to go out there now before they disqualify me."

Fumiko stared at him. She wasn't exactly hurt, no, just very surprised and very, very worried. Blood touched the corner of her mouth.

Gaara closed his eyes. "Okay. Come on. Walk with me. But then please, promise me you'll go back to Baki."

"Gaara..."

"Please."

His voice stopped her. The unmistakable wobble in it made whatever barrier she had put up melt. Whatever Fumiko felt, Gaara hadn't purposely tried to hurt her. But whatever was going to happen... whatever it was, it would be huge. Fumiko nodded.

"Okay..."

He led her along to another curve in the halls that she didn't seen before. Fumiko was dazed. The only times she could really remember Gaara straight out lying was when assassins were coming that he knew about, or his father had yelled at him, or that once again a mob of people in the village had converged ad tried unsuccessfully to kill him when she wasn't there. Whatever secret he was keeping would make her very, very upset... maybe even angry.

When they reached the mouth of the hall, they were stopped by two ninja that stood in their way. Gaara tensed. It was enough to shake Fumiko out of her stupor. They were from the village hidden in the grass, judging by their headbands.

"You puny kids think this tournament is about you," the taller, skinnier one said. His voice was high and thin. "But it's really about the people who bet on you- or against you, in this case."

Fumiko shrank slightly. This wasn't friendly in the least.

"You see, our master's got a lot of money on the other guy to win."

The bigger one smiled. Fumiko couldn't see his eyes through the dark glasses he wore. "Got it? That means you gotta lose."

For once Fumiko was tongue-tied. Were these ninja threatening them?

"Well? So what's it gonna be, kid?" His eyes slid over to Fumiko, then down to her legs. His eyebrows raised slightly at the sight of her prosthetic.

"Maybe he's too scared to talk." the bigger one suggested.

"Gaara." Fumiko said in a small voice. "Please stay calm."

The taller one pulled a kunai blade from his coat. His smile was dark.

The cork flew from Gaara's gourd, sand rushing out like a pressurized water cannon. The lights in the hallway burst when it came into contact.

"Gaara, no!"

The cork smacked loudly into the wall and bounced back toward them. Some instinct made Fumiko snap up her hand, accidentally knocking Gaara's from her arm, and catch it. The cork was almost bigger than her entire palm.

Sand engulfed the first. He screamed but didn't stop, so she assumed he was only trapped and not being crushed. More raced after the second, who wailed aloud and turned tail to run away, but it was useless. The sand wrapped around his ankle and dragged him back to them, screaming his head off and begging for mercy.

"Gaara, Gaara-" Fumiko gripped his arm. "Gaara, stop it-"

"They would kill you in a heartbeat." Gaara said quietly without looking at her. "They were certainly planning on it."

Fumiko almost bit through her cheek. This was going to sound totally unlike her but she was rattled, and besides, it was probably the only thing that could stop him. "Gaara if you don't stop, I refuse to close my eyes, you hear me?"

"Fumiko-"

"It'll give me nightmares," she said quietly. "You know it will."

Finally he looked at her. His eyes were pained. "Why save them?"

Fumiko ran through possible answers in her head. They didn't mean it and They're just under orders crossed first, followed by They're people and Everyone deserves to live, Gaara. But she said none of these things. Instead, she replied, "Because whatever it is you're planning to do, the last thing you need is more blood on your hands, okay?"

The sand loosened and fell in piles around the two Grass ninja. They stood up and ran, screaming.

"I'm sorry." he muttered. The sand poured back through his gourd, even going so far as to pluck the cork from Fumiko's hands and seal itself.

"I know. Come on. Let's go to your match."

Now Fumiko was leading him. She bit down on her cheek again when they stepped into the light.

Uzumaki Naruto and Shikamaru were standing right there, below them on the lower platform. Thank Kami she had stopped Gaara killing those people- but either way what had just happened would have scared them.

They walked side by side quietly down the steps, past the two frozen Genin on the stairs and down to the main entrance of the arena. She stopped when she saw sunlight shining at the far end.

"Gaara. Good... luck on your match."

He watched her passively. There was no expression, but the look in his eyes...

"Love you."

He ducked his head just slightly.

"You too."

...

Fumiko was right. Baki was mad.

"What did you think you were doing?" he barked when she sat down again, hugging her arms to herself.

"Baki." she said. Below them, in the arena, Gaara and Sasuke had already squared off. "I know something's going on. I won't ask what it is but..." She felt tears pricking her eyes. "Did you make Gaara lie to me?"

"All right. The rules for this match are the same as for the preliminaries." the proctor said, saving Baki from having to answer. "The match continues until one of you dies, or admits defeat. However, I can stop the match. But that's solely my decision. Both of you- to the middle."

Both opponents, Gaara and Sasuke, stepped forward. Fumiko was worried for Gaara, now that she knew he could be hurt. She hoped that whatever emotions she had accidentally just put him through by putting him on the spot wouldn't distract him. In hindsight, questioning him had been a terrible idea.

There was a moment of heated silence.

The proctor brought down his hand. "Begin!"

...

Gaara stared Sasuke down. There was hatred in his eyes. Gaara wondered briefly what Sasuke saw in his. Anger? Sadness? Guilt? All of the above? That was what he was feeling. Why Sasuke hated him so much was beyond him. Perhaps he was closer to Lee than Gaara had originally thought? He didn't know, but honestly, he didn't care either.

Sand rose like a clawed hand from his gourd. Sasuke jumped back.

Gaara didn't usually feel emotional during fights, and that worked to his advantage. But now...

A sudden, pulsing pain raged in Gaara's skull all at once as Shukaku's full influence slammed into Gaara's consciousness with all of the power it had been saving. Gaara jerked like he'd been struck, stumbling back half a step and bringing a hand up to his forehead. Sounds escaped his mouth, almost whimpers.

Evil just like me! Shukaku shouted in his head gleefully. Made her bleed! Made her bleed!

"Have you been lying the entire time? What is it? What's wrong? You only lie for real when something's really wrong!"

"Fumiko." Gaara's fingers tightened. "Calm down."

"Gaara-"

"I'll explain everything later," he said. "I swear I will. But I need to go out there now before they disqualify me."

She stared at him. Her eyes were wide and shiny, like she was about to start crying. They had deepened to the color of dark chocolate, which meant she was either really mad or really upset or both. Gaara could see the muscles work and freeze in Fumiko's jaw. Blood slipped out of the corner of her mouth, sliding down her chin.

Shut up. Gaara fired back.

The Shukaku was suddenly all over his head in a way it rarely was, igniting like fire wherever it spread. It made him shake with pain. Shukaku had purposely picked his most vulnerable time, in front of an enemy that could attack him at any moment. Gaara had no time to fight back. KILL HIM NOW. I have no patience. Refuse to kill again, I dare you.

Gaara startled. A red flag went up in his mind. Shukaku was never so direct.

...

Another headache.

Fumiko felt terrible. A headache usually meant that the demon in Gaara was taking advantage of whatever emotional backlash Gaara was feeling.

Gaara stumbled forward, crying out, whatever scream he would have cried abruptly cut off with pain. Both of his hands gripped his forehead. The sand above him crashed to the dirt as Gaara momentarily lost function.

"Baki-!" Fumiko cried in alarm.

He took her wrist and yanked her back into her seat. Fumiko didn't remember ever standing.

"Sit down."

Gaara regained his footing. The sand rose again, but only halfway.

There was the unmistakable sound of metal as Sasuke flung shuriken.

Useless, Fumiko thought. She gripped her knees hard with her fingers until it became painful.

The sand rose and a sand clone seemed to melt out of the wall hand-first as the shuriken hit it, pulling free. The two bladed discs were held in its fingers. The rest of the body followed.

His shield... it had changed?

Sasuke tried to dash forward, but clone-Gaara thrust its hands forward. Sand exploded from its middle and rushed forward like an uncontrollable sideways waterfall. It smashed down where Sasuke had been standing just seconds before. Gaara was fighting to kill, and this wasn't the usual way.

The shukaku was angry, not wheedling.

Sasuke dropped like a stone from where he had been flying in midair. The Gaara clone flung a clumsy hand forward, launching the shuriken, but Sasuke pulled out and fired a kunai They clanged in midair and fell. The clone's hands came up defensively and Sasuke kicked through them, dropping onto both his hands and spinning on his palms like a dancer. When his feet touched the ground, he crouched to the side.

The clone's hands were wisped in the air around its wrists. Sasuke punched at its throat but got stuck as the sand spread over his arm; he tried to pull away and jerked to a stop. He struck out with his other hand, but the clone dissipated. Sasuke got his bearings quickly and ran forward, throwing a blistering punch Gaara's way. As soon as it was launched, however, he was gone.

The thin wall of sand that had automatically risen to protect him hadn't even puffed. There hadn't been contact.

Fumiko startled so badly that a gasp strangled her throat.

"N-no!" she gasped. "Th-that speed!"

The words hadn't struggled out of her throat before there was a bang like a dropped rock. Gaara was thrown back, and Sasuke was there with his fist out, like that was where he had started. Gaara slammed into the ground hard just as the sad slid beneath him to catch his spinning body.

"So that's your sand armor, huh?" Sasuke said. He held out a hand. Gaara sat up. "Come on." Sasuke frowned angrily when Gaara didn't react. Gaara was probably just as shell-shocked as her. "Well if you won't do it, than I will!"

There was a sound like a sonic boom, then a rip of dust across the space.

Gaara reacted fast, bringing up an arm to raise the sand at the same time as he stumbled to his feet, but Sasuke disappeared, reappeared, disappeared, faster than Fumiko could process; behind Gaara now, and he flew forward.

Gaara twisted and his sand pulled around him, the trail of it spinning in a spiral after Sasuke's blur as he ran to the side. But something somehow must have missed or left an opening, because there was a dark spot in front of Gaara less than a split second before Gaara grunted all of the air out of his lungs and shot back. Again, the sand caught him as Sasuke lowered his foot.

"What's the matter, Gaara?" Sasuke taunted. "Is that all you've got?"

"Gaara!" Fumiko cried before she could stop herself. The smoke cleared. Gaara stood up shakily, sand rising in a tight cyclone of protection.

"I'm going to tear off all your armor!"

It must have been the breeze that said it, because Sasuke was gone.

Wind and dust whipped up into a twister. It looked exactly like Lee's frontal Lotus technique- where was this speed coming from? She hadn't seen this kind of taijutsu before during his fight with Yoroi- actually, he hadn't seemed like he was a taijutsu specialist at all. Sasuke twisted and slid under Gaara's circular rise of sand- Fumiko only saw it because that's where she was looking- and his fist shot up from Sasuke's spot on the ground.

It hit Gaara squarely in the shoulder. Gaara spun but Sasuke grabbed his gourd sash and slammed his knee into Gaara's stomach.

Fumiko almost screamed.

I don't care if he lied, I don't care if he keeps lying, don't let Sasuke kill him.

The prayer swished through her mind before she could stop it, like an apparition of one of her worst fears.

Gaara put his fingers together in a jutsu symbol Fumiko recognized.

"It's a jutsu I learned to use a few weeks ago. I can fuse my sand with the hardest minerals in the ground and then seal it around anything. No jutsu or anything would be able to break through it, ever."

"Why do you need it?" Fumiko asked. "Nobody can get past your sand armor. Your defense is already perfect."

Gaara gazed at her. His eyes were plain and open and there was almost fear in them.

"Nothing can break through it." He repeated. "Nothing. Just in case. Fumiko, if I use it, stay away."

Sand closed around him on all sides in a sphere.

Sasuke rushed toward the closing circle of sand. Just as he reached it, swinging his arm out into a smashing punch.

Spikes shot out of the sphere, jutting all around Sasuke. The angle of his punch, his low stance, that was what saved him. Fumiko saw his closed fist. He might have easily just broken every bone in his hand with that punch. A spike had grazed his face.

Sasuke jumped back. The spikes receded. Above the sphere, just slightly to the left of it, Gaara's optical sand eyeball formed.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Sasuke ran at the sphere again. He snapped his hand forward and shuriken clanged off the sphere's wall. Then he rushed it, dodging just barely all of the spikes that shot out, skipping backwards. He tried again, dancing between the spikes again and again. The sand filled in the spaces Sasuke occupied by the second, spikes slipping like snakes and weaving in and out of each other.

"Baki-"

"Quiet!"

Sasuke jumped and came down on it from above. His toes touched it for just a second and then he fell back as spikes shot from the sphere's top. Only then did Fumiko get a good enough look at his face to realize that his eyes had gone from onyx black to fire red.

Sasuke back flipped until he reached the wall, and then skidded backwards up it with chakra.

His fingers raced into quick signs. Sasuke grabbed his wrist when he finished. Fumiko peered at him, but mostly she was worried about Gaara. He had never had to use that particular type of defense before. Her eyes widened, however, when blue light sparked and flared from Sasuke's hand, twisting and writing. Oddly enough, the terrifying jutsu chirped like birds.

Like lightning.

Sasuke rushed down the arena wall, carving a trench two feet deep wherever his hand touched. When he reached the ground there was an explosion of dust, and Sasuke raced forward, still clutching his blue-swathed hand. It was powerful, whatever it was. But what in the world was it?

Sasuke gave a war cry, dodging past the spikes, thrusting his arm forward.

Silence. The fraud sound of chirping birds set her nerves on edge.

Fumiko choked on air.

Sasuke's hand had slid through Gaara's better-than-ultimate-defense sand.

"I don't believe it!" Baki stammered His voice was so shaken Fumiko couldn't believe he wasn't trembling.

She was.

There was a tearing scream from inside of the dome, so raw and high and terrified and agonized that it made Fumiko's blood freeze and her heart stop. "Ahhhh! Blood! It's my blood!"

"Gaara!" Fumiko screamed finally, standing.

"Fumiko, sit down-"

Sasuke couldn't pull his arm out. Frustrated, he restarted his technique, arm still inside the sphere.

Gaara's bloodcurdling scream was too much for Fumiko to handle. Her heart thumped so loud and hard she thought it would burst and she whipped her head from side to side. Tears flung from her eyes and she lurched sideways to get out of the stands and down into the arena. Her heart hurt so badly it would certainly kill her.

His scream continued to ring through the air, pounding into Fumiko's head, searing it's melody into her brain forever.

Finally Sasuke's hand came out, the blue lightning stopped, the screaming stopped. Fumiko realized that Baki was holding on to her elbow and that her thrashing was starting to upset the other spectators but she didn't care because Gaara was in pain-

Fumiko froze. Her breath quickly turned warm in her lungs.

The hand attached to Sasuke's arm was not Gaara's. And it was not good.

Shukaku.

"No," Fumiko whispered. Tears still leaked from her eyes. She stood stock-still like a statue, barely daring to breathe. "No."

Sasuke fell back, kneeling, still gripping his hand like it hurt. The arm slammed into the ground, writhing, searching for purchase.

Searching for his prey.

"Gaara!" Baki spat. "You reckless little fool!"

Fumiko rounded on him. "It's not his fault! He's hurt! Lemme go, Baki!"

Slowly the arm retreated like it was being sucked in. All that remained to show any disturbance on that gold-yellow wall of sand was the small hole Sasuke's jutsu had left behind. Whatever was in that sand sphere was taking over her best friend.

There was a low rumbling from the sphere. A growl that sounded like a quiet roar. It sent shivers racing down Fumiko's spine.

"Please let me go," she begged, jerking her eyes to Baki. "I have to- have to stop him!"

"There's no stopping him now." Baki said quietly.

Fumiko paused. Biting her lip and tasting salt, turned her head forward, gazing back over the arena.

The ball suddenly cracked. The lines spread over the sphere like a spider's web, followed by a sound like shattering ice.

Then it collapsed.

The first thing the sand slid away from was Gaara's gourd. Then slowly it washed over the rest of him. Gaara stood, almost crouched, swaying like he would fall. His hand was gripped to his left shoulder. Suddenly, like Fumiko's tears magnified the scene, she could see clearly the red that seeped over and between Gaara's shoulder, like he'd been impaled by a sword.

A small sob escaped her throat.

There was a sudden, soothing sound, like tinkling bells and glass chimes.

Fumiko's tears stopped, drying on her cheeks even as she looked up. White feathers, cleaner and brighter than the clouds in the sky, drifted all around her. She reached out, mind momentarily blurred as she admired the pure white down of the nearest one. A fragrance like a sweet flower filled her nose. She watched the feather drift gently down toward her outstretched palm.

She knew it would be the softest, most heavenly thing she ever touched.

At the last minute, as her eyes drooped, she realized what was going on, why the sleepy tug around her felt so familiar. Fumiko felt her body start to fall ethereally, like she wasn't in it, as the feather reached her palm.

Just before it touched her, she whispered, "Kai."

The world turned white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, in this fic, remember that Gaara isn't barking mad. So he isn't going to mutter to his dead mother. Just letting you know. This chapter turned out way more dramatic than I meant it to- somehow Fumiko found out about Gaara's lie before I wanted to her to.


	22. Eye of Shukaku

Baki hadn't been sure if Fumiko would be able to sense the Genjutsu in time to stop it, or even if she would be at a high enough level to stop it. It hadn't made much difference to him; either way, he would bring her away from the arena- had everything gone according to plan, which obviously it hadn't.

However, he had not been counting on her standing up when the attack came.

Baki saw the girl sway once, twice, mesmerized by the petal-soft illusion of white feathers. Her fingers twitched like she wanted to reach out. Them she fell, and in the light of the sun Baki saw the last remaining drops of her frantic tears slip into the air like glitter in her wake.

Of course he caught her before she smashed her head open on one of the hard wooden chairs or the stone steps. Fumiko was completely limp, taken by the Genjutsu. There was a loud clatter as the metal and wood contraption she used to walk toppled and skidded to the floor- the weak chakra threads she used to keep it on must have failed when she fell asleep.

Muttering to himself, Baki quickly made the hand seal. "Kai!"

Nothing happened. Fumiko continued to take deep, even breaths, face blank.

Baki frowned. "Kai!"

There were shiny tracks down her cheeks from her fit during the match. However, her face now was devoid of any emotion. Even in a jutsu-induced sleep, she should have had some state of awareness in semi-consciousness. Baki reached out and pushed Fumiko's eyelids open with one hand. Her pupils contracted normally to the light; shrinking quickly. Then he placed a hand on her forehead to try and sense the cloak over her chakra flow- except that there wasn't one.

Baki shook her shoulder roughly. Fumiko didn't stir, but her head flopped down over his arm as a result.

"Fumiko. Wake up." he commanded. "This is no time for games."

Fumiko remained so completely still that at first glance, one would think she was dead.

Baki cursed.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Now not only had their original plan failed, but now he had no idea what was wrong with Sabaku no Gaara's friend, because somehow, even though she was asleep, she didn't appear to be under the influence of any Genjutsu. So she had managed to dispel it, after all. But there was only one problem- she just wouldn't wake up.

Quickly, he tied the fallen prosthetic into the corner of Fumiko's cloak. Then he stood holding Fumiko in one arm like a duffel bag. Her limbs hung limp in the air. Then, checking subtly across the arena stands to be certain that every jonin or ANBU black ops was accounted for, Baki leaped out of the steps faster than could be tracked by the human eye, making his way to the arena, where all three Sand Siblings stood together.

Baki phased in between them and the strained-looking Uchiha across from them. Gaara was struggling just to stand, staggering forward while Kankuro and Tmeari tried to hold him back.

"What are you three doing now?" he said sharply. "Can't you see the operation's already underway?"

Gaara's eyes jerked suspiciously. "Fumiko..!"

Then he cut himself off, gripping his hands to his forehead and gasping in pain.

"Baki, what's wrong with her?" Temari asked nervously.

"She isn't under the Genjutsu, but she won't wake up," he said in a low voice. Through his obvious haze of pain, Gaara most likely wouldn't hear the words. "My best guess is that she became tired enough from it to fall asleep and something went wrong once she released it."

The replacement proctor for the third exam appeared standing just in front of the Uchiha. His intense expression was somewhat contradicted by the senbon needle playing between his lips. Baki turned to face him, Fumiko still tucked under his arm.

"What is going on?" the Uchiha demanded. "Tell me!"

Behind Baki, Gaara's pained groans worsened. Baki turned just as he fell to his knees, still gripping his forehead. Gaara's fingers were curled into his hair so viciously Baki wondered how it was that he hadn't drawn blood.

"Gaara!" Temari blurted.

"What's wrong?" Kankuro hissed.

Temari knelt, then looked up at Baki from beside Gaara. Her expression was tense. "His wound is worse than I thought. And his chakra is almost completely drained away."

"Wait." Kankuro interjected. "What about using that-"

"It's impossible right now." Temari said.

"You fool," Baki said as if Gaara could hear him. "It's all because you tried to transform before the signal was given!"

Kankuro whipped around to look at him, shocked. His voice was anxious. "So what do we do now? We need Gaara for this!"

Baki took a calming breath and tried to clear his head. For now, Gaara was out of commission, however that could soon change. With the Shukaku inside of him, there was no telling how quickly he could recover his chakra given the chance. But if he was attacked now, when his headaches were fierce enough to bring Gaara to his knees...

"Gaara is the trump card of the village hidden in the sand." Baki said finally. "We have to get him to play his part, no matter what. Alright. For now, you two take Gaara and tend to his wounds. As soon as his chakra has been restored, the operation will continue."

"You've got it." Kankuro said, a little uncertainly, then knelt down to wrap Gaara's arm over his shoulders. Temari stood.

"And you, sensei? What about Fumiko?"

"Take her with you. It would be better to have her with you in any situation." Baki handed the still girl to Temari, who shouldered the weight expertly. Baki could only assume that Fumiko weighed much less than the large fan Temari wielded on a daily basis. "I'm going to take care of these guys."

He turned to face the new proctor.

"Do you really think that everything will go according to your plan?" the proctor said tersely.

He said that as if everything was going according to plan.

"I'll make sure that they do."

There was a moment of high-strung silence. The jonin in front of him shifted the senbon in his mouth just slightly in anticipation, enough that a small splash of moisture sank into the dirt at his feet.

"Go!" Baki yelled. He heard the shifts of soil as they vanished.

..

Fumiko was a dead weight.

Her body flopped and twisted in her arm like a sack of hard potatoes as Temari skimmed through the treetops. She wasn't really that heavy, but it was enough to shift her momentum every time Temari landed, which was getting really annoying. But it could always be worse. As it was, Gaara appeared to have fallen unconscious, so at the very least there was a chance she could wake Fumiko up before he recovered.

That was, if the Uchiha would quit their tail.

"Hurry!" she called out to Kankuro, who dashed beside her holding Gaara.

Suddenly she sensed more than the troubled dark chakra that identified Sasuke. There were more.

Seriously? she thought in frustration. More pursuers? Two- no, three.

"Kankuro, we've gotta go faster!"

Temari bolted ahead of her younger brother, leaping the large chasm between her and the next branch. The hard lump wrapped in Fumiko's cloak whacked against her leg and she bit back a curse.

"Okay, okay!" she heard Kankuro grumble.

They ran away for hours, which grated on her nerves like sandpaper, but they didn't have any other choice. Gaara was injured badly enough that he had lost him mind entirely and then passed out, and Fumiko was in some sort of deep sleep that no apparent amount jostling could wake her from.

When they finally stopped, panting for air, it was dark outside. It was getting increasingly more difficult to see the branches in front of them, but hopefully they had lost their pursuers for long enough to hide away until the sun came back out. If that was the case, they would be able to rest and treat Gaara's wounds.

Temari knelt and put her ear to the bark. She concentrated, feeling the thrum of the forest and the pounding of her heart.

"Well, Temari?" Kankuro asked in a soft voice so as not to be detected. "What's up?"

Temari raised her head. "He's close," she finally sighed, standing. Temari stepped to the edge of the thick oak branch and looked out at the darkening forest. No doubt Sasuke knew these woods better than they did, and was a better navigator in the dark. "Very close."

"I knew it," Kankuro growled. "What do we do?"

Temari smiled slowly.

She put Fumiko down gently on the branch so that she wouldn't fall, then reached into her hidden pocket and pulled out her roll of trigger wires. An odd thing to carry around, but helpful in a cat-and-mouse game of chase. "Leave everything to me."

She pulled the wire clip with her teeth, and the thread unwound with a sound like a zipper. Temari hooked the clip onto a small, new-grown branch. Then she zipped through the trees, weaving wires into bark and leaves, planting hair-trigger explosive tags that would catch fire along the strings at strategic spaces until the whole forest lit the Uchiha up like dry tinder.

Well, if he stepped on one of the three trigger stations she had managed to set up in the short amount of time Temari had been given.

The second she finished, Temari picked Fumiko and her fan back up, hefting them both. She nodded to Kankuro, and they vanished across the branches again.

Just moments later, explosions rocked the forest much closer than she had previously thought. The heat of the blasts were almost hot against Temari's back. She cursed and half-stumbled to a left branch. Kankuro skidded to follow her just as a planned tongue of flame broiled the area where they had just been standing.

Temari panted for a moment, stunned, one hand on the trunk of the tree, the other still hooked around Fumiko's middle.

No matter what, they could rest now. The other two or three pursuers were so far behind, Temari had stopped being able to sense them a long time ago. After that blast, Sasuke Uchiha would be dead or at least injured with third-degree burns.

"I think- we're safe- for now," Temari managed.

Then a kunai split the wood just in front of her face.

Temari backed up quickly and just stared at it for a second in disbelief.

"Looks like I finally caught you."

Temari jerked her head around.

How had the Uchiha gotten in front of them?

He stepped forward leisurely on a branch ten yards away above their heads. "Did you really think I'd let you get away?"

"Oh, jeez." Kankuro muttered.

Temari lowered her hand to the end of her fan. "If it isn't Uchiha Sasuke."

He casually flicked a kunai up in his hand. There was an almost-genuine but still sarcastic smile on his face. "This is as far as you guys go."

..

Oh, man, Gaara, Kankuro thought furiously. Where are you when we need you? You picked a lousy time to be out of commission. This Uchiha kid is trouble.

Uchiha Sasuke stared them down. A small, arrogant smile played on his lips. He held his kunai blade proudly like a flag, holding it out in front of him.

"So," Kankuro said, hefting Gaara's weight. "What are you gonna do, huh?"

Suddenly Temari shoved something onto him- after a moment of confused grappling and a rush of wind, he realized she had handed Fumiko over to him and jumped away to face their pursuer. Great. Now he had to carry Crow, Gaara, and the bratty little kid.

"Go, Kankuro!" Tmeari ordered from the air. She whipped out her senbon. "Get Gaara out of here!"

Her kunai flew, narrowly missing as Sasuke moved fluidly out of the way. Temari fell forward, catching a wide branch and flipping below it to come around on the other side and catch her footing. Then she stood. "I'll take care of this one."

"Don't be a fool, Temari." Kankuro argued. He was crouched awkwardly, trying to support two limp bodies. "This kid's too much for you to handle all by yourself-"

"Don't argue! Our mission is to make sure that Gaara is safe. He's our first and only priority. Watch out for Fumiko as well- Gaara will be no use if he wakes up and she got hurt or killed." Then she looked away toward Sasuke. "Don't worry about me. This is what I've been waiting for. Get going, Kankuro."

Grimly, Kankuro nodded. Then he phased quickly to leap to the nearest branch.

"Oh no you don't!"

Kankuro nearly got impaled, but he managed to somehow stay just ahead of the blades. He heard them thunk loudly into the bark.

Kankuro forced himself not to worry about Temari and instead focused on running as quickly as he could through the trees without dropping either Gaara or Fumiko.

He didn't quite know what was wrong with Fumiko, but whatever it was, she didn't budge at all. Gaara was the same way, lying limp against his side, which actually made Kankuro really uncomfortable. What happened if he woke up? Kankuro had never physically touched Gaara before. In his state, it was likely that Gaara would try to kill him.

He had heard sounds of battle, but now it had faded away. He hoped that was because he had gotten far enough away that he couldn't hear it and not that Temari had already been...

His senses tingled.

Uchiha, or someone else?

"Ugh- they're coming. But which one?" he murmured to himself.

From the distance, there was a slight ripple of metallic sound as weapons- he couldn't see flew toward him with frightening speed. Kankuro grunted and zigzagged across the forked, twisted branches around him. He felt the vibrations under his feet.

"So it's Uchiha!" he blurted aloud.

What about Temari?

Leaves scattered in the wind above him. Kankuro skidded on his branch to keep from jumping to the next one just as Sasuke landed on it, still smiling, but now he looked more tired. His face was tight, and he was breathing heavily. "You through running away?"

That struck a nerve. He wouldn't have to be running away if his two charges would just wake up already!

Kankuro took deep breaths to try and get more oxygen to his burning lungs. Fumiko still dangled from one arm, and when he glanced down quickly at her, he bit back a curse. A kunai must have nicked her somehow; there was a decent sized line of blood trailing from her elbow to her wrist.

Kankuro decided on playing it cool. He forced a lazy smile on his lips.

"Who says I'm running? I'll take you on, no problem."

"Wait!"

From the canopy of leaves dropped Temari. She crouched lightly beside him.

Kankuro breathed a sigh of relief. "Temari... when he showed up and you didn't, I thought... he must have finished you."

"He could've, and why he didn't, I don't... know." she said in a hard voice. Then she stood. "Guess I didn't delay him for very long, huh?"

"It's okay. Every second gives Gaara more time to recover." Kankuro stepped forward slightly. "And the more chakra Uchiha is forced to use up, the better it is for us."

Sasuke just smirked.

"Kankuro, I've got this!" Temari barked, almost glaring at him in determination. "Get Gaara out of here- go on!"

She was already so beat up. Obviously Temari couldn't fight any longer- she was one of the most stubborn people Kankuro knew. If Sasuke had managed to get away from her, it meant she hadn't been able to follow him. Kankuro dipped and deposited Gaara and Fumiko on the wood, then leaped forward to the branch in front of them. He set down Crow with a decisive whumph.

"Huh?"

"You're all worn out; Look at yourself." Kankuro said. He spared just one second to slide his eyes her way. "Go on, you'll only get in my way."

"Wait a second!" she exclaimed. Her eyes filled with a kind of desperation and she spread her arms. He looked away.

"Get moving!" Kankuro said. For a second Temari didn't move. "Hurry up!"

A sigh. "All right."

"All right, Uchiha. Time to face someone you own size."

There was a swish as Temari took off behind him, presumably with Gaara and Fumiko. Kankuro tensed for battle.

Sasuke leveled a dark smirk his way. His eyes were cutting. "Hmph. Whatever you say."

...

Temari was getting worried as well as absolutely sick and tired of running through the trees. They were large, they hid her enemies, and they were full of tiny branches that whipped her face, arms and legs as she retreated. She would be glad when they returned to the leafless, treeless heat zone of Sunagakure.

She had Gaara pressed to her one side, her grip was tight. It had to be- he kept slipping. Fumiko was easier to carry- she was lighter and smaller- but she occupied one of Temari's hands, which made it more difficult to balance and hold the two up.

Temari wondered briefly how Kankuro was doing in his fight with that Uchiha. The kid was no pushover, that was for sure...

Temari was exhausted. Completely out of chakra, she had been running nonstop since the day before, holding first one than two dead weights. If this kept up she would be forced to either rest or slow down, neither of which were attractive options.

Gaara stirred.

Temari almost slipped off the next branch- it was small, and was much more flexible than she had previously judged. But she managed.

Then she almost cursed in surprise when she realized Gaara had lifted his head to look at her. His eyes were twisted up, lip curled like he was about to attack, which he probably was. "Temari, put me down."

"Are you sure you're strong enough, Gaara?"

He didn't answer, and so Temari landed on a thick branch the length of a dining room table. It was lower down than they had been, and she hoped that would throw off her pursuers, at least briefly. Carefully she knelt, first draping Fumiko in such a way that she wouldn't fall off, and released Gaara, who slumped and immediately gripped his forehead again.

"Gaara!" Temari cried in alarm, then spotted the bright red stain on Gaara's shoulder. Clenching her teeth, she looked back at the wall of green behind them. It could be hiding an enemy, or perhaps it was holding nothing.

There's no telling how long Kankuro can delay Uchiha, she thought. Every second counts.

Hurriedly she dug through her breast pockets for healing salves. When she found one, she realized that the only type of medicine she had brought was, conveniently enough, for stopping bloodflow and closing wounds. If it would help Gaara enough that he could recover, than she wouldn't have to run.

"If we don't keep moving, the whole plan will fail," she said softly so as not to anger him. Temari opened the salve.

"Leave me alone." he said in a voice strained with pain. "Temari, go away!" Gaara stood with wavering legs, stumbling slightly. "You're nothing but a... a nuisance."

Temari made the mistake of leaning closer to help him stand. Before she could touch him, he waved his arm back like he was going to swat a fly, but the blow was more powerful than she thought it would be. His hand slammed into her stomach, and Temari was sent flying back with a cry. She hit the trunk hard, Then slid into a brush of leaves. Temari slumped.

Her back burned with pain. Temari's head swam. But she looked up to see what Gaara was looking at and flinched when she saw the figure watching them from above. The filtered green sunlight gave him a black silhouette.

Sasuke Uchiha? Temari thought. Did he get past Kankuro already? No- it was too quick.

Someone else must have shown up. It was the only explanation. But who? Their other pursuers had been so far back- did they catch up quickly enough to divert Kankuro from his fight with Sasuke?

"I have no idea what scheme you sand village clowns have got going," Sasuke said, and his deep bass voice rang through the trees. "But I'll stop it, no matter what it is! Besides... I'm dying to see what you really are!"

Gaara screamed, armor cracking on his face. His blue, pupiless eyes were wide, unseeing.

Temari's eyes shot open and her breath caught in her throat. "Oh no..." she gasped, voice trembling. "It's happening- any second he's going to let that... thing out! No... not now- not now! No, Gaara-... Remember our mission!"

Temari had never personally seen it, but she had heard terrible stories. Shukaku was powerful, terrifying, and evil to the core. Of course, this was why Gaara was such a frightening person- Shukaku's madness glinted in his eyes sometimes, and even so, it had obviously affected his psyche. He had killed people before without remorse.

And he was about to set it free.

...

Something was wrong.

Fumiko absolutely could not move, and she wasn't really conscious, either.

Sounds and liquid color swirled past her sight with dizzying speed. She was disoriented. Sensations of pain curled from nowhere- but it hurt like being sliced by a blade. Everything was foggy and dark, staining her mind with a deep sense of confusion. Why couldn't she move?

Fumiko wasn't asleep- she could feel her body, heavy and numb like all of her muscles had released. It was painful. But she was thrust deep into her mind, unable to do anything more than panic at her loss of control. Fumiko strained, trying to open an eye, turn off the colors, something to ease the flying high-rise of her thoughts, which continued to scatter as soon as she strung them together.

But more than that, on some deeper level, she sensed something wrong. Something not about her. Something about-

Red bloomed behind her eyes.

...

Gaara was screaming unintelligibly, thrashing his head from side to side, eyes wild. The armor cracked and slid across his body in a rippling wave, his his gourd suddenly burst into a shower of sand that washed over his uninjured arm like a sleeve, cloaking it.

It was starting.

The sand spread like a disease over his face, turning the planes of half his face rough and bumpy like a toads. Purple bloomed in intricate swirls across the new skin. When his eye opened again, it was no longer blue- but burnt yellow surrounded by blackness, like the evil sand possessing him.

Temari trembled, stumbling back and raising her arms in front of her face, whimpering in terror. If Gaara saw her now it would mean her death. But still...

... eventually he would recover. And when he did that, Fumiko needed to be there and awake to calm him the hell down before he went on another rampage.

It was a plan. A feeble plan, but it was still something, and Temari latched onto the thought as her saving grace.

Gaara lurched forward, throwing his monstrous arm like a club. The clawed hand spread and shot like a bullet toward Sasuke, who narrowly avoided the deadly blow. The sand smashed instead into- and through- the tree on which he had originally been perched.

Wood chips and leaves flew everywhere. There was a crashing sound like ice and the end of the world as the tree collapsed, spewing chunks of wood bigger than Temari's head and smoke that stung her eyes. She braced herself against the wind, then cursed as, just a few feet in front of her, Fumiko slid off the side of the branch. A fall from this high could kill her.

Temari dived forward just in time, reaching down and grabbing Fumiko's only ankle.

Grunting, she pulled her back up and darted around the trunk with her in tow. From the opposite side of the trunk Gaara wouldn't be focused enough to notice her. Temari placed Fumiko on the bark in front of her, then curled up with her back against the trunk, covering her ears to try and block Gaara's incessant taunts.

"Are you shocked by my true form? Come out, come out, Uchiha Sasuke!"

...

Everything hurt. His arm, his mind, even the old wounds from his fight with Lee that had long since healed.

Gaara was furious. He wasn't sure at what exactly, but the painful loud voice in his head directed him just fine- Uchiha Sasuke, who had injured him! Uchiha Sasuke, who was strong enough to pierce an unpierceable shield developed specifically to contain a literal demon! Then, insult to injury, he had followed them all the way out here just to try and hurt him again!

Kill. Kill. Kill.

It ran through his head like an old film reel, slithering into every crevice until his consciousness was- was it's.

Kill. Kill. KILL!

The pounding pain fused him with the power inside him like a white-hot iron, and he wanted to break something with the strong, undefeatable limb of sand that he never let free. The fighting, the screaming, the fear, it made him heady with adrenaline.

Why had he ever stopped it?

Pain seared his skull.

"Arrgh!"

Gaara lashed out at Sasuke, who had leaped out from behind a tree and rushed him.

Claws that were his dug into the Uchiha, carving out a chunk until half a hole tore out of him. But then it smoked, and became a mangled tree chunk.

"Guess again!"

Gaara whipped around to intercept the flying blades.

...

Temari couldn't see what was going on, but she could most certainly hear it.

"Here, you can have them back!"

Temari's hands shook as she again took out the salve. She had noticed Fumiko's wound before, but hadn't pain it much attention- it wasn't bad, but it was bleeding, and it was something to do besides just panicking.

There was a moment of silence. Then-

"Why are you hiding, Uchiha Sasuke? Why don't you attack?"

There were no sounds of battle, but Gaara continued to scream out as she pulled away the red spotted fabric of her cloak to expose the cut. She had most likely just been nicked by one of the many shuriken and kunai thrown at them. Carefully she wiped away the blood to expose the shallow cut.

At least she won't hit me away, Temari thought almost sarcastically.

She rubbed the salve in. Usually it would have stung, but there was no reaction from Fumiko, so Temari just went about her business easily. There was nothing to wrap the slice with- but it was semi-clean and now the bleeding had stopped, and since Fumiko wasn't really moving around, Temari decided it would just have to do.

There was a crash as more trees collapsed somewhere close. Temari shivered, mumbling sounds under her breath. She had to wake Fumiko up- she had to.

...

Okay, this had to be a dream.

Colors and sounds still invaded her mind, but now they had been joined by simple things, like a red rubber ball and a brow teddy bear. Things she recognized but couldn't remember, fragments. But why recall things like that now? The pain had dulled somewhat, flaring every now and then as if to remind her she was trapped. Fumiko, had she been awake, might have thrown up.

Wake up. The little toys seemed to whisper. Fumiko, you need to wake up right now!

...

"Uchiha Sasuke, are you really so afraid of me?" Gaara cried. "Has all your hatred dwindled down to this- abstract fear? Is this the existence you live now, that of a coward? Come out and fight me. Show me that I'm wrong! Attack!" 

Birds scattered into the air around him. Gaara looked from side to side, growling.

Gaara could feel the sand inching across his skin, closer and closer to his chest, where it would grow and expand, gaining a mind of it's own. Gaara knew that he should be trying to stop it, but he couldn't imagine why- not yet, all he could think about now was-

\- screaming-

\- Fighting.

Killing, the painful voice in his head roared. Gaara fought his smile, trying to kill it only out of habit. Really, he didn't know why he ever tried- it hurt, yes, but it was strong, and with this kind of frightening power nobody would ever hurt him again. Searing pain melted his thoughts until finally his mind wasn't his- it was it's.

The air behind him crackled with electricity. Gaara jerked around to see the glow of blue energy emanating from behind the trunk of a tree, spitting tongues of lightning. The air filled with a sound like chirping birds. Memories of pain rushed through his shoulder, on top of the already there pain of blood running down his arm. Gaara growled in anger, but the Shukaku inside of him was ecstatic. Sasuke edged out from behid the trunk, gripping his light-wreathed arm.

"Good." Gaara said, slurred, only half in control of his mouth. "Now we're gonna have some fun!"

He attacked first.

...

Temari gasped as they met in the middle.

Gaara wailed in pain as the cutting blue lightning sliced into and through his arm of sand, splitting it in half all the way down the length of it.

"Gaara!" Temari cried as he fell. Then she almost slapped a hand over her mouth to shut herself up. Gaining the attention of the partial-Shukaku now would be suicide-she had to be absolutely quiet. Stunned, she looked to the Uchiha.

Gaara slammed into a thick branch. Sasuke landed lightly, turning to look at his possibly unconscious opponent. Temari watched in horror. If this Uchiha kid was powerful enough to defeat a partially-manifested tailed beast, she was in trouble. If Gaara transformed, at least she could run. But if Gaara was killed and the Uchiha came after her next...

She would be done for.

Then Gaara started laughing. Temari didn't know whether or not to breathe a sigh of relief. Slowly Gaara picked himself up. His arms hung limp, human and not. His laughter rand through the trees. It set Temari's teeth on edge. "I see!" he exclaimed, still laughing. "So that's what it is!"

"Amazing," Temari whispered. "After all Uchiha has been through, he was still able to counter Gaara's attack."

"Now it's clear to me exactly why I've been looking forward to this," Gaara said loudly. His voice was rough and cracked. He gripped his mangled arm of sand. "This... pain... what a thrill it would be to crush such an opponent! Capable of wounding me so badly!"

No one has ever wounded Gaara, Temari thought, standing. And he's done it twice. He's a freak of nature. Like Gaara. But this one's a freak in every fiber of his body... For all Gaara's strength, it's only his right arm that's been transformed.

Whoever won this fight, there was a definite chance she would be killed.

Temari glanced down at Fumiko. All of her efforts to wake her had failed utterly. If there was any chance of Gaara turning back to normal, it was passed out in front of her. If Gaara calmed down, there was a chance that Sasuke would either lose interest in the fight, or that Gaara would be able to rationalize an actual attack.

Temari clasped her hands together in a prayer.

Please don't let me die, she prayed desperately. Help us.

Obviously, Kami hated her. Or maybe he was just busy with something else. But either way, Temari got the opposite of what she asked for.

"There's more," Gaara hissed. "There's so much more!"

More of his gourd collapsed. Sand hardened and spread, writhing into a tail. It grew until it was thicker and longer than Temari herself, writhing until it swished in the air above his head. Sand crept into the flay marks of his arm, healing it.

Gaara gripped the branch under his feet, stretching back until his tail and arm were tight. Then he launched himself forward, shooting through the air like he'd been shot from a chakra-cannon. Gaara slammed into the branch Sasuke had leapt from just milliseconds before, cutting into and through it like a chainsaw. He twisted in midair, sand limbs latching onto stray branches until he hovered in the air.

Sasuke hung upside-down from a tree limb. Temari watched he put his fingers into a jutsu symbol that she recognized. It had almost fried her, after all. Gaara flew at him, using his sand for leverage.

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"

The ball of flames engulfed Gaara, and then faded. It didn't seem that Gaara had even noticed. He smashed into Sasuke, sending the genin spiraling back, crashing through branches and solid trees until finally spinning to a stop halfway through a trunk. Sasuke slid down limply.

Gaara landed agilely on a branch not far from her.

"Is that it?" he said. Spittle ran down his chin uncontrollably. "That's pathetic. Truly."

"Shut up. Shut up!"

"You know what that means, don't you? You can't win."

Sasuke stood. His arm flared brightly, but it was weaker than it had been before.

They attacked once more.

...

It was worse than the first time. The attack shredded through his sand arm, bypassing the human one completely. When Gaara landed, it slid off like an old skin, collapsing on rough bark.

It didn't hurt him, exactly.

But it hurt Shukaku more than words could describe, and when Shukaku hurt, so did Gaara.

The demon was no longer amused. Now it was angry, and it's anger mixed with Gaara until they were almost one consciousness. It was, to say the least... thrilling.

More sand spread over his previously injured arm- a gift and a last resort. The sand swarmed his wound, closing it and sealing it and hardening around it, building up and up and up, creating a fluid new limb. His other arm felt like it had been through the crusher, but this was better.

When he turned, smiling widely, he realized that Sasuke had fallen.

Is it dead? Did it die?

Something was spread over Sasuke's neck- black, but curled like flames.

I don't know.

The Uchiha moved, grasping the marks on his neck like they were painful.

No, he was definitely still alive.

With Shukaku's roaring ringing in his ears, Gaara pounced, screaming with mad victory.

Something orange flashed in his vision for a split second before a searing pain carved into the side of his face. Gaara's head snapped to the side and he was sent reeling away. He crushed through one tree, but managed to turn in the air and catch himself on the second.

WHAT IS IT?

The thought was his, but wrapped in so many layers of the tailed beast's that it still hurt him anyway.

...

Temari watched as Sasuke was surrounded by the pink haired girl, Sakura, and... was that a dog? Temari shook the thought off. Naruto was there as well- he had been the one to kick Gaara in the face. Now he was standing between Gaara and Sasuke while Sakura tended the Uchiha.

"Those two." she said in a low voice.

The group of Konoha-nin murmured and muttered amongst themselves. Sasuke appeared to be in pain from the black marks that had spread across his face and neck during the fight with Gaara. Gaara appeared to be growing more agitated by the second.

"What do you want?" he growled. Then he paused. "It's you. You're the one I didn't kill that day."

Naruto whipped around to face his friends. "Guys, get up, we have to go now!"

Faster than Temari could blink, Gaara rushed past Naruto in a blur of red and black and brown-yellow.

...

Okay. Sakura had been called an airhead before.

But this time, she didn't care if she wasn't thinking. She had to protect Sasuke.

"DIE, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Sakura struggled to her feet, ripping through her pockets for a weapon- a shuriken, a kunai, something that could help. Finally her scrabbling fingers gripped a hilt and she pulled it out, holding it in front of her like it could stop the blur of sand, skin, and evil hurtling towards her. Her face set in a determined snarl.

"Sakura, no!" she heard Naruto cry, but it was too late. Her eyes locked with the monster's just a moment before impact.

Something smashed into her chest and her arms. Sakura's kunai sank into the sand but it didn't make any difference at all- she was hurtling backward fast enough to slam her head forward and give her vertigo. Wind whipped her hair and her skin until her eyes watered. The sand was sharp somehow, like claws wrapping around her and squeezing her-

Then something hard hit her in the back, and everything went black.

...

Something was lifting. The colors were fading. There was still a lot of sounds, and the pain intensified, but now it was concentrated in spots on her body- her body that she could feel now. The simple toys faded away until there was only darkness- and that, too, was lifting; fading until soon there was light shining through her eyelids.

Fumiko's eyes fluttered. She groaned as she registered the pains across her body, especially in her arm, which stung like ants swarming under her skin.

"Fumiko?" somebody asked with disbelief.

Fumiko opened her eyes. Pain stabbed her eyes as light seared her pupils unexpectedly. Slowly she managed to sit up, straining as the last bit of sleep clung to her with claws and teeth.

The disbelieving voice continued to buzz in her ears, but she focused her eyes forward. Were they in a forest? What the sugar were they doing all the way out here? She remembered being in the arena, and then the feathers...

Her eyes caught and focused.

Fear flushed through her veins. Fumiko scooted backward over the hard branch she had been draped across, the rough bark digging into her palms, until her back unexpectedly hit the trunk of the tree behind her. She wiped her eyes with one hand, fumbling her fingers over the naked stump of her leg only to discover that she was minus an artificial limb.

Her eyes remained glued on the scene before her.

Through blurry vision, Fumiko saw the one thing everyone around her had always be afraid of: Gaara, partially consumed by living sand, glaring with the eye of Shukaku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. There's a lot of timeskipping, sort of, or at least weird timing. Honestly, I just didn't want to have to edit everything Gaara said- because remember, he doesn't have that 'no friends = power' mindset. I flip povs a lot, but hopefully it isn't too hard to follow. Crappy fight scenes are crappy. Enjoy!


	23. Enter: Shukaku the Sand Spirit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashbacks are not italicized. XD

Gaara stood, his posture tense and almost lanky. One 'arm' was stretched out around a thick tree branch. The other was limp at his side, and below it a large black and brown-yellow tail of living sand slithered across and off the edge of the tree branch he was standing on. The beginnings of a cat-like ear was sprouting onto the side of his head.

Fumiko was frozen, staring at the sand-boy hybrid in front of her. Well, he was actually pretty far away from her, but still. If he wanted, he could easily kill her from that distance.

Shukaku.

There was an orange blur and a battle cry as Uzumaki Naruto- Fumiko was so disoriented that she didn't even question his sudden appearance- flew forward with his fist raised. Faster than light, Shukaku's tail snapped like a cobra, swatting Uzumaki Naruto out of the air and back onto the leaves he had jumped from.

As her vision cleared, Fumiko could see that there were even more elements to baffle her. Sasuke, laid out flat behind Uzumaki Naruto like he was fainted. As Fumiko whipped her eyes back to Gaara, her eyes followed the line of Shukaku's arm until it came to rest on Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi was unconscious and pinned to a tree by a claw of sand that seemed to be getting tighter and tighter.

She opened her mouth to scream- what, she hadn't quite thought out yet- but a hand smacked over her lips before she could make a sound. Fumiko flinched violently but the familiar voice that followed almost reassured her. Not really. But almost.

"Fumiko, be quiet! You'll get us both killed!"

"Hm-ar-ee!"

Temari was right behind her, on the very base of a branch inches from the one she was sitting on. Her eyes were taut and frightened, lips pursed ito a pencil-thin line. Fumiko couldn't blame her- while she had never been afraid of Gaara before, this... this wasn't Gaara.

"Yeah, it's me." She muttered anxiously. Temari took her hand off Fumiko's lips.

"Where's Kankuro?"

"I don't know."

"What happened?"

"A Genjutsu knocked you out. These loons have been chasing us through the forest for almost half a day now," she answered. "Gaara got pushed too far, I think, and he started... changing." She swallowed. "Anyway, a couple of Uchiha's kunai clipped you in the arm.

Oh, so that's what that weird liquid warmth was.

Fumiko glanced down at her fingers, which were clamped over the throbbing blotch of pain on her upper left arm. Dark red blood seeped between them, staining her cloak black.

She was aware now of a heaviness in her cloak. She pulled it in with her free hand, and let go of her wound for a moment to shakily untie the by now loose knot in the corner of the fabric. She was relieved when the tie unraveled to reveal her missing prosthetic, and right away, she slipped it on and felt the chakra seep back into the stub as the sock connected.

"Temari," she said. "How long...?"

"I don't know." Temari's face was grim. "I tried to wake you up when it started, but... I think it's too late now."

Temari's eyes flickered from Gaara back to her. Blood once again slipped between Fumiko's lips as she gnawed frantically in a futile attempt to clear her head. She needed a plan. Something to help with situation. Maybe if she did something now, it wouldn't get any worse- but who was she kidding?

Shukaku was out.

"What should we do?"

The desperate words did not come from her mouth.

"I don't- I don't know," Fumiko said shakily. "It's- it's never gotten this bad before. A little bit of growth on his arms before, but that's it- never a full fledged transformation!"

"So there's nothing we can do?" Temari hissed. "Just wait until he kills them before he kills us? I don't think so, Fumiko!"

Gaara's dark laughter reverberated through the trees, shivering into her ears like a parasite. It made her flesh tingle and crawl along her bones, but she couldn't control it in the slightest. This could very well be it.

"Shukaku really doesn't like you." Gaara admitted.

"Why not?"

Fumiko struggled through her wooden chest for a small tube of white paint that she could swear she had put in it yesterday. On Gaara's request, she was going to try and paint Shukaku so that Gaara could get a better feel- and hopefully, handle- on the raging force trapped in his skull. The only problem was that she had no idea what it looked like.

So of course she'd ask a hundred buzzing questions. The idea was to get familiar with the tailed beast's personality and go from there.

"Because..." Gaara hesitated. "He doesn't have as much control when you're around. It really makes him angry."

"Pff." she grunted. "He's always angry."

"Yeah, but..."

"But?"

"Oh... nothing."

Shukaku, Fumiko knew, would be dead set on destroying her if he were to be fully released.

"That's exactly why you can't win." he growled, and Fumiko knew it wasn't Gaara because of the deep, scratchy undercurrent in his voice that otherwise wasn't ever there. "As long as you fight for the sake of others... you'll never advance beyond this level."

"Gaara," Fumiko murmured.

"Only one can remain undefeated," he said. "And only he will feel what it's like to truly exist. Forget your friends- fight for yourself!"

Uzumaki Naruto gritted his teeth. "You're insane. Forget my friends..."

"Let trivial feelings like friendship and loyalty cloud your focus," Shukaku/Gaara scoffed, "And you'll die."

"Oh, yeah, yeah." Uzumaki Naruto said roughly. "Keep talking while you can! I'm about to shut you up once and for all!" Uzumaki Naruto pointed an accusing finger in Gaara's direction. Both had fire in their eyes. Uzumaki drew blades from his pouch.

"You don't understand what true strength is." Gaara muttered.

"Oh, no." Fumiko said. "Gah, if they start fighting-"

Uzumaki Naruto leaped, flipping forward in midair as if to stab into Gaara's skull. She waited anxiously for the tail to smash him away, but right as it began to his forward, it stopped. Gaara winced, bringing a hand up to the even further transformed side of his face. His hand looked almost comically small compared to the second eye.

"Fumiko, we have to get out of here." Temari said, standing. Fumiko tore her eyes away from the deadly scene. Temari was white as a sheet, gripping the bark with her fingers like it would save her from death.

"I'm not leaving without Gaara."

...

Shukaku was confused. Utterly, utterly confused; and that sent him into a flying rage. Red anger stirred and curled into the deepest parts of him as Shukaku pulled old memories from nowhere to try and explain this blond-haired boy's intentions. A loud ringing filled his ears.

"Get out of my way!"

"Augh!"

So very similar. Why did everyone try so hard to protect nothing's?

"Gaara, no!"

Sand exploded around his crossed arms; raised to protect his face. It curled across the bare skin of the brown-haired girl's arms but otherwise didn't hurt her. When it blew away Yashamaru was bleeding and his face was scratched as if by a demon cat.

Gaara let out a strangled moan.

"Get out of my-"

Such determined, hard eyes.

Gaara slashed the tip of his tail forward over his head at the annoying, yelling thing like a scorpion going in for the kill. He'd been trying to cut him in half, but the transformation must not have been close enough to completion. It flew backward and hit a clump of leaves and gnarled bark hard.

His body was throbbing. With power, and pain; but what was the difference?

Yashamaru lie there, dazed, blood coming out of his mouth and a cut on his forehead. He stared blankly at Gaara.

Gaara flinched. His eyes twitched and he trembled, clutching his chest. Gaara screamed in confusion, startling Fumiko, who stood beside the body, frozen in fear. Fumiko looked down on him in concern, but he could see that her eyes were drawn to the three thin trails of blood down Yashamaru's face. "Why... Why? Yashamaru... Why did you do it? I don't understand..."

Now Gaara's eyes welled with tears. His voice cracked. Gaara hunched over in grief, pulling on his own hair to try and alleviate the crushing pain in his heart.

"Tell me why..."

It was easier to just let the sand flow.

"Love is... the heart's desire to protect someone precious to you. To watch over them. To care for them. Like my sister did for you."

Shukaku rifled with tipped claws through his mind, shredding him from the inside out. Internally, Gaara screamed.

"After all, you're special, Gaara." Yashamaru said around the finger in his mouth. "You're very dear to me."

Goddamn these stupid memories; damn Yashamaru, and Fu-

... No...

"I thought... Yashamaru... If I'm precious to y-you... how could you?"

"It was an order." his voice was whisper soft, and he couldn't seem to meet Gaara's eyes. Gaara sniffled and looked at him. "You see, I was ordered to kill you, Gaara. By Lord kazekage. Your father."

Fumiko's mouth opened in a silent gasp and Gaara just stared. His tears flowed on their own in his shock. Fumiko dropped to her knees beside Yashamaru, across from Gaara, and reached out a hand as if to wipe off the blood before pulling back.

"My father..?"

Gaara felt absolutely sick to his stomach, and he swallowed hard, putting a hand over his mouth. Gaara made a choking sound, trying not to scream again, or puke. "Why me?" he gasped when he got his nausea under control. His head stayed down. "Why would... my father..."

"You were born with the shikaku." Yashamaru said. "A living sand spirit inside you. All these years you have been watched and studied... as part of a great experiment. It became clear that you could never control it, the shikaku that possesses the power of the sand itself. The day is coming when your existence will become too dangerous for the village. It had to be done before then."

Finally Gaara looked up at him, tears in his eyes, and smiled bitterly, but also in relief, because that meant he still... Yashamaru still... But his father... He could feel Fumiko's hand on his arm as she reached over the soon-to-be-corpse. Her small voice trembled. "Gaara..."

"You had to obey my father." Gaara said. "You didn't have any choice."

"You're wrong." Yashamaru said with a faint, ironic smile. "I had a choice."

...

"What's the matter?" Shukaku/Gaara roared. "Why don't you attack? Don't you are what happens to your precious friends?"

The claw of sand tightened around the unconscious ninja in it's grasp. In her sleep, she gasped in pain.

"Sakura!" Uzumaki Naruto cried. "Let her go!"

After a moment of agonized silence, Uzumaki Naruto set his hands into rapid seals. Biting into his thumb to draw blood, he crouched to spread it into the branch below him. "Summoning jutsu!"

There was a small curl of smoke. Then in it's place, a small, bright orange and dark purple toad stood.

"What is it? What do you want, kid? Well, whatever it is, I hope you brought along some treats. 'Cause if you think I'm doing anything for nothing you're wrooong!"

"Oh, gimme a break!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled. His fists were clenched and his face was outraged. "I'm really starting to hate you stinking frogs!"

"Whoa-ho-ho, anti-amphibian, are ya? Well; take that, you big bigot!" The little toad stuck his long pink tongue out at him.

Fumiko wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Even Shukaku/Gaara looked confused.

Fumiko couldn't catch the rest of their conversation. Temari grabbed her uninjured shoulder.

"Now, while he's distracted!"

"I told you, I'm not leaving without Gaara."

"Don't be stupid," she argued. "That isn't Gaara."

"No, it's not," Fumiko agreed. "But he's in there somewhere."

"Worried about the others?" Shukaku/Gaara taunted. "That's your big mistake."

Fumiko looked his way and nearly screamed.

The sand had spread across the remainder of his human face, covering the porcelain skin with mucky yellow sand and replacing his teal blue eye with another ugly diamond surrounded by yellow and pitch black. It had happened so quickly that she hadn't even realized the sand had been shifting at all. The only familiar feature was the dark red kanji, which was achingly, emptily hopeful, like a dying bird's call in the face of a disaster.

As she watched from behind, the sand writhed and moved like thick mud, absorbing the entirety of Gaara's torso and the beginnings of his thighs. It swirled across his shoulders and seeped down his back like it was eating him alive. His face seemed to elongate and he doubled in size until he looked more demon than human.

The arm broke, leaving only the claw to imprison Sakura. That, too, regenerated quickly.

"Only by attacking and defeating me can you save her," Shukaku/Gaara said. "And you should hurry- with each passing second the sand will harden, until it crushes her to death."

Fumiko stood.

I can't let him do this, she thought, Shukaku or no.

"Sand Shuriken!" Shukaku/Gaara thundered, crossing his monstrous arms before flinging them apart again. Bullets of sand slashed through the air. Uzumaki Naruto quickly grabbed the little frog, shielding him; and was blasted backward into a trunk.

Before Temari could react, Fumiko jumped to another branch, higher and closer to Shukaku/Gaara.

This wasn't going to work. There was no way. But she could try.

Temari didn't even try to stop her. Fumiko heard her dive behind the foliage as she cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Gaara, no!"

Shukaku/Gaara shuddered.

For a split second, Fumiko thought that by some miracle, it had worked.

Then he whipped around, almost too quickly for her too follow. But she saw his eyes. His terrible, rage-filled, merciless eyes.

"Stop hindering me! Sand Shuriken!"

Fumiko's eyes widened as the baseball-sized sand spheres rippled through the air, moving so fast that it was more like rain to her eyes. There was no way she could dodge them. Instinctively and with a scream, she raised her arms to protect her face and took a step back.

She stepped off the edge of the branch, but that didn't matter. Before she could fall they pummeled into her; flinging her back like a spinning rag doll through the air. Crushing pain ignited in her chest and arms, but then she smashed sideways into the trunk of a tree. Her body bowed backwards like it would snap in half, and Fumiko felt all the breath leave her then. When she fell, she landed folded over a branch stomach-first.

Burning heat filled her throat. She tasted blood on her tongue again, but this time, it wasn't her fault.

Her lungs screamed for air. Clumsily she tried to get up again, but there was something wrong with her arm, and she couldn't breath. Pain bruised her body. She laid limp, limbs hanging in the air.

Her ears filled with a high-pitched ringing that drowned other sounds out.

Hands grabbed at her shoulders some time later, raising her torso up; dazedly she registered Temari's face, squinted and almost angry. Her mouth was moving, but Fumiko couldn't hear what she was saying. The pain in her arm and chest intensified as she was shaken so that her head lolled.

It was only minutes later that her hearing slowly returned. As it did, her dizziness passed.

"...okay?!"

"Huh- ack!"

Fumiko doubled over out of Temari's grip, coughing. Blood shined on her legs and her hands as it splattered out of her throat.

"Fumiko!"

"Ackk! Agh! Ahh- ack!"

"Stop it! Stop that! He's distracted again, we have to, have to move!"

Vaguely she could hear the sounds of battle. Temari had come to get her, but why? As terrified as she was of Shukaku, Fumiko had expected her to hide away or run.

Temari took her arms. Fumiko bit back a scream.

"Augh! Temari- ack!- my arm!"

"What? What is it?" Temari asked frantically, hands springing away from her.

Fumiko's common sense was slowly returning. As calmly as she could through the pain and the coughing fits, she ran a finger across her searing left forearm. It was already starting to swell, and she could feel the sharpness below the skin.

"Agh- I think- I think my arm is fractured. And my... ribs are- something's wrong, I- ack- think some are broken."

"What?"

"My cloak." Fumiko said. The liquid in her throat enticed another coughing fit, but as soon as it faded she tried again. Fumbling with her good hand, she pulled at the clasp. "Temari- help me-"

Finally, with Temari's help, it was off, and Fumiko wrapped it once tightly around her bad arm, then wound both ends around her body. Temari, perceptive as she was, realized what Fumiko wanted and took the cloth from her hands, tying the makeshift sling off at the base of her neck. Fumiko choked off any agonized sounds to avoid catching Shukaku/Gaara's attention a second time.

Gaara, after the first time they met, had never, ever hurt her.

Temari's eyes darted to the fight. "He... what's he doing?"

"What's who doing?" Fumiko managed. Her body trembled with foreign pain. In all the times she'd been kicked, or pushed, or punched, it had never been this bad. It wasn't as bad as the faded memory of the explosion, but still, it was bad. She couldn't stand quite yet- she just couldn't.

Temari leaned her against the trunk so she was sitting up straight. It hurt, sugar, it hurt, but she could see. She had been blasted even farther away than she started, but now she was at suck an angle that she could see the battle.

"What is this?" Shukaku/Gaara growled, clenching his sand claw. He seemed to have completely forgotten about her- maybe he thought he had killed her. "You come at me, and that's all you've got? All that effort... and you couldn't even touch me. What a joke!"

Uzumaki Naruto was hard to make out from this distance. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

There was a line of swirling smoke. In it's wake stood enough clones to successfully make it impossible to tell which was which. Fumiko squinted, trying to get a better look but the blood in her throat made it hard to stay still as she continued to break into random bouts of coughing. Temari hovered worriedly at her side.

"Here goes!" a clone- or maybe it was the real Uzumaki Naruto- said and they all took of, flying like human torpedoes toward Shukaku/Gaara. "Get ready for the ultimate secret taijutsu! Uzumaki Naruto- clone body slam!"

"What does he think he's- agh- doing?" Fumiko said hoarsely. "He needs to r-run!"

"Gaara's got that girl pinned up," Temari said. "He keeps threatening her."

"Not Gaara," Fumiko said. "Ack! Not Gaara."

Shukaku/Gaara launched his arm forward. It slammed into the first three clones, but it didn't seem to deter the ones behind them, who simply landed on one another's shoulders in a three-part chain until there was only one left, and he was thrown forward faster than a shuriken. "Let's do it!" The one falling toward Shukaku/Gaara, Fumiko guessed, was the real one.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" he yelled again in midair. More clones popped into flight. Again, Shukaku/Gaara's remaining sand claw snatched at them, but they pushed the first forward until he was behind Shukaku/Gaara. Still falling, he cried, "And again! Shadow clone jutsu!"

A clone appeared just under Uzumaki Naruto and he launched off of it. "Take this! Konoha secret taijutsu, straight from the teachings of Kakashi-sensei! One thousand years of death!"

Uzumaki Naruto managed to get right behind Shukaku/Gaara, closer than I would have thought possible in his state.

"What? What's he doing? I can't- ack- tell."

Temari blinked. Then her eyes closed as if in embarrassment. "Uh..."

Shukaku/Gaara's tail slammed into Uzumaki Naruto from the side, sending him flying back.

There was a bang as the tail of sand exploded in a rush of orange and red flames. Uzumaki Naruto was flung into Sasuke, and both of them hit the tree hard. For a moment, the monster was engulfed inside of a fireball.

When the smoke cleared, Shukaku/Gaara looked like a wax figure melted on one side. The sand slid off like sloughing skin, dripping down the branch until it seemed like it would come off entirely, however, just as quickly as it fell off, more took it's place. His armor was definitely weakened, but it wasn't broken.

Sasuke stood. After a moment, Uzumaki Naruto followed suite. Shukaku/Gaara leaned against a tree trunk for a moment to regain his bearings, then turned to face them. The half-melted demon was grotesque. He glared at Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.

Suddenly there was a static rush of something through the air. It sizzled her nervous system in a way similar to the powerful chakra of the one-tails that even Fumiko could feel, but now she sensed this coming from Uzumaki Naruto.

"But... how is he..."

"I don't know," Temari said. "But this battle is on a completely different level than it was. Fumiko, we have to move. If Gaara turns around, we're in plain view."

"Alright... but... don't leave."

"Quit being stubborn!"

"Am I being stubborn... Ack! Or are you?"

There was an audible rushing sound as smoke exploded into the air around the fight. When it cleared, Fumiko could only stare.

Hundreds of clones filled the air; on branches and on the sides of tree trunks and on the ground an in the air, like the time that Fumiko's clone jutsu had spiraled entirely out of control. Only, that had been a full body's amount of chakra, and plain illusion clones rather than solid ones. By this point Uzumaki Naruto should have had close to no chakra.

"Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" They cried.

"Uh!" Fumiko yelped in surprise.

"Gee, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting so long!" Uzumaki Naruto called loudly, pointing a smug finger in Shukaku/Gaara's direction. "So get ready for an original jutsu straight from my ninja handbook!"

"What the- how could he have summoned so many clones?" Shukaku/Gaara exclaimed.

"You've gotta be kidding!" Temari said in an almost-whisper.

"Alright, you! Here I come!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled. Every clone jumped, creating an impressive wall of orange and blond, yelling at the same time. "Let's do this! Direct from Naruto's ninja handbook! Everywhere: shurikens!"

It was a black rain of metal. Shukaku/Gaara raised a claw to defend, absorbing the attacks, but suddenly he was kicked up from below by several clones she hadn't seen before.

"Na-ru-to: Uzumaki Barrage!"

Sand exploded as tens of fists smashed into and through Shukaku's sand body. He flew back, more mangled than before; two clones jumped up from below and punched him solidly. More sand flew. "From Naruto' handbook!"

Gaara fell straight down through the trees like a dead weight and hit the ground with such a bang that the trees shivered. There was a mushroom cloud of smoke.

"Gaara!" Fumiko couldn't help but yell.

When the dust cleared, Shukaku/Gaara was half-lying in a crater. Sand struggled around him to pull itself together.

The Uzumaki Naruto's fell at him with vicious speed. "This time we'll use both legs for a barrage of four thousand kicks!" They chorused. Fumiko flinched.

"Unbelievable," Temari thought aloud, "Taking Gaara on in his current form!"

"Temari, what if he-"

"We can't worry about that now." she said firmly. "We have to move; at least farther away."

"There's absolutely no way I'm gonna lose to a guy like him!" Gaara screamed.

A spike of sand shot like a thousand-ton katana blade through the hail of clones, destroying each one instantly upon contact. Momentarily Fumiko was blind to the scene. Temari crouched, leaning toward her slightly and pulling Fumiko's uninjured arm across her shoulders. Before Fumiko had time to think about it, Temari stood, straightening her out.

Fumiko's screech of pain was cut off as Temari leaped sideways. Quickly she dashed further away. What seemed like just seconds later she stopped abruptly. Power shredded Fumiko's senses. Temari shuddered, then her hands went slack.

Fumiko crumbled painfully to the ground. Biting her lip and fighting back tears, she raised her head to look at the thing that was causing her to shake this badly out of pure, undiluted terror.

The ground shook with giant footsteps.

Gray smoke cleared to reveal a monster bigger than kazekage tower- way bigger than anything Fumiko had seen. It towered above them, it's skin a mottled medley of brown-yellow with streaks and swirls of dark purple lines like decorations across it's body. The tail alone could have crushed kikyo castle and everything within two hundred yards in any direction with a single swoop; and it's ugly crumpled snout reminded her of a feral raccoon's.

A massive, ticked off, evil, bloodthirsty feral raccoon.

The Bijuu had finally emerged.

"Oh..." she sighed without meaning to.

Oh Kami.

"A perfect possession." Temari whispered dully.

"Well, what do you know." The voice was almost Gaara's, emanating from the sand as if from every pore of the beast's body. It was creepy- Gaara's voice was so close to being normal. "I never thought you would bring this out of me!"

He raised a claw big enough to flatten Fumiko's entire apartment building like an empty soda can. Uzumaki Naruto's body slowly was absorbed by a cocoon. Fumiko closed her eyes tight in pain and fear and panic.

"This is the end for you! Sand Buria-"

"Summoning jutsu!"

There was a bang loud enough that Fumiko's eyes snapped open.

A toad.

That was Fumiko's first thought. Her second thought was, How the living sugar did a toad that big just appear out of thin air?

It was almost as big as Shukaku, although the Bijuu most certainly was larger. It almost looked like the other frog, the smaller one, except that it was more reddish, like fresh clay from the earth. Uzumaki Naruto stood atop it's forehead, an orange dot high above. Shukaku's tail swished back and forth like an agitated cat's.

"Uzumaki Naruto..." Gaara's voice said, then laughed lowly. "You really are good at amusing me."

"What the..." the frog mumbled. The voice rumbled through her chest like bass. "Not you again. What is this?" His huge yellow eyes slid forward. "Huh- well, will you look at that. Shukaku the sand spirit." A pause. The toad blew smoke from his pipe. His next words seemed directed to Uzumaki Naruto. "Take a hike. Why go outta my way to mess with a guy like him? What am I, an idiot? ... Yeah, sure. I told you I'd make you my henchman. But we haven't even sealed the deal yet, have we?"

Fumiko had no idea what was being said. If she wasn't so terrified, she might even have been curious. But as it was, she would rather have never come to these Chuunin exams. Even with all of the friends she'd made, so many bad things had happened. They could have been painting stars on Gaara's wall, but instead, he would possibly try to kill everyone.

She had never seen Shukaku in it's entirety, but at least now she knew that her painting had been way, way off.

"And just whattaya think you're doing here, kamakichi?" the toad rumbled. She had no clue who kamakichi was, but she could assume it was the suddenly absent tiny toad. There was a moment in which whoever and whatever was on his head conversed. Than the big toad's eyes narrowed. "Come again? ... Is that right."

Shukaku shifted like he was anxious.

"Okay, kid." the toad said, reaching for the giant hilt of a giant hilt strapped to his waist. When he drew it, the vibration set Fumiko's teeth on edge. "You're hearby accepted as my henchman." he raised the sword level with his face. "Sit tight. I'll show you what 'duty' is all about. I'll take him down- but not before he's paid for what he's done... that worthless little flunkie!"

"Take Shukaku down?" Fumiko laughed, but the sound was hollow. Her voice seemed smaller than a mouse whisper compared to the throbbing intensity of the entities' before her. "Just like that, huh?"

Ordinarily, a toad hopping along on the road is cool. Amusing, even.

But when this toad 'hopped along' at full speed wielding a sword almost as long as the width of the chuunin exam arena, it was just plain terrifying. Not to mention that the world shook like there was an earthquake.

Fumiko doubled over in pain, clutching at her ribs with her one good hand. Her arm was jostled painfully.

"Gargh! Temari!"

"I gotcha!"

A hand grabbed Fumiko's shoulder roughly just as she started to fall. In the chaos, squinting her eyes, she managed to look up and see the toad stab his supersized blade right into Shukaku's shoulder. He wrenched it, then leaped over the demon's head just in time to avoid the claws.

Shukaku's arm was launched from the edge of the toad's blade as he jumped. There was another thundering in the trees as the toad landed, and an aftershock seconds later as the arm followed. A sound like a waterfall hissed in her ears as it dissolved into ordinary sand. Milliseconds after that, the sword fell from the sky, burying itself into the landscape.

This time even Temari almost lost her balance. Fumiko kept low to the ground, crouching and digging her good fingers into the bark. It hurt like crap, but she stayed more or less on the branch.

"Interesting!" Shukaku bellowed almost gleefully. "Interesting! Not bad, Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Fumiko, we have to get out of here!"

Fumiko struggled to her feet, propping herself up on the trunk of a tree. She looked over at Temari, who was coiled like a strung wire, ready to snap.

"I can't!"

"Don't be stupid. You can't do anything for him anymore."

"So?" Fumiko gave her a gentle smile. "Look, I just... I need to be here."

"This isn't an exam, Fumiko. He'll kill you."

"Let him."

"If you won't come with me, I'll leave!" she shrilled.

Fumiko rounded on her, ignoring the pain in her ribs and arm. "Go, then! Go! Find Kankuro; or someone that can help." Fumiko quieted. "Except that I guess you can't, can you? I dunno what you did, or what you were planning to make Gaara do, but somehow I doubt Konoha will help you now. Am I right?"

Temari said nothing. Fumiko turned away and looked back at Shukaku. Something was roiling just above it's eyes, and she had a pretty good idea of what it was.

Beside her, without a word, Temari dashed away.

"A spiritualist medium." the toad murmured.

Gaara hung limply from Shukaku's skin, exposed from the waist up. He seemed unharmed but it was next to impossible to tell.

"Please help us," Fumiko whispered in that abstract way that people prayed when they didn't really believe anyone would actually answer them. "Please help. Um." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Just don't let anybody die."

"The circles under his eyes..." the toad observed. "They're signs of insomnia. Evidence that the medium has been possessed by Shukaku. Those possessed by the sand spirit are no longer able to sleep soundly through the night. The terror is too great. If one does sleep, the Shukaku will eat away at your psyche until the person that you once were ceases to exist."

Oh Kami, did she know that. How many times had he woken up with nightmares before Fumiko had looked into meditation as a sleep alternative?

"Since he normally doesn't get much sleep, the medium's personality tends to get quite unstable. As long as the spiritualist medium is awake, the Shukaku's true power is held in check. The only danger... is if the medium finally falls asleep."

"Oh no. Oh no." Fumiko gasped suddenly. "Oh no. He wouldn't. Oh jeez. This is really bad."

Fumiko stewed for a minute. If he was planning what she thought he was planning... than her Gaara was probably pressed so deep into himself that he no longer had any control. Her Gaara would never purposely release his demon.

There was a sigh that sounded like Gaara's. It slipped through the trees, just the faintest whisper of a sound.

The toad tensed. "He's done it... if he's set the play possum jutsu in motion... then the Shukaku will be released."

"Yyyyeeeahhaaa! I'm finally free! Here I come, baybeh!"

In retrospect, Fumiko supposed that she shouldn't have assumed every bad guy would have a deep ominous voice. But usually it made Gaara's own voice rougher, deeper, darker, with a sharp edge like superheated blades, so she had figured it would sound at least a little like that edge.

Which was probably why she was so startled when the Shukaku yee-haw'd like a good-old fashioned Land of Fire cowboy.

"Here we go! I hope yer ready ta die! Let's do this!" it said with an accent thick enough to make Fumiko unsure of what she was hearing. Sugar, this was so weird. It was surreal- she was terrified and yet, too dumbfounded to really be afraid.

Gaara.

Gaara was up there. On that thing.

"I have to get up there." she said to herself out loud. "Okay, Fumiko... think of it like one of Gaara's school question. You're trying to climb a six-story building with only windows. It's raining outside and enemy nin are out to get you. All you have is a few kunai knives and explosive tags along with whatever is around you. What do you do?"

"I'm gonna jump." the toad warned. Instinctively Fumiko crouched again to hold on, still thinking hard.

Shukaku inhaled, inflating like a balloon. "Wind style: air bullet!"

He punched his own stomach. Condensed, sand-filled air burst from his mouth like it'd been shot from a cannon.

The toad jumped, but the wind raced through the trees. Somewhere, there was a snap and a slow crash as a tree fell. The toad formed what seemed like a jutsu symbol. "Water style: Liquid bullet!"

Shukaku fired off another air bullet, and the two attacks collided in midair, bursting into a deluge of rain that drenched her. Fumiko's arm burned like the Suna sun and she had to blink water out of her eyes. The big toad hit the ground and jumped once more, sending a current through the earth.

"Air bullets!"

Phoom, phoom, phoom.

"Water bullets!"

Phoom, phoom.

Even with her crazy thought processes, it was easily distinguishable. Shukaku had one more bout of ammo than that big old toad.

There was a whumph and a boom as the air attack connected. She worried about Uzumaki Naruto, but in her frenzy she skipped a few key thoughts like missed stepping stones. Now she was splashing through the water, trying to come up with a plan of action.

"Yeeaah! I did it! I killed him! I killed him!" the Shukaku crowed.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Fumiko yelped as the ball of smoke smashed into the forest.

She sighed in relief when the toad jumped back up.

"Now that kind of hurt. That was an awful lot of chakra you just hit me with, I have to admit. Hit me with a couple more of those and even I won't last much longer! ...Well, for starters, you can wake up the spiritualist medium to release that jutsu! ...Just fire off a few rounds at 'im!"

Shukaku launched a bullet, which the frog dodged. "Liquid bullet!"

Shukaku slid back. "You missed!"

Another burst of water and the toad was suddenly on top of Shukaku, grabbing; but grabbing with slimy toad-hands.

"Now's your chance!"

But then Shukaku pulled out of his grasp and the toad leaped away.

She wouldn't be able to do any damage whatsoever to either of them. That was certain. But if she could intervene, distract Gaara somehow while Uzumaki Naruto did whatever he had to do to wake him up...

... if Temari were to direct the winds just the right way... and Shukaku launched an air bullet that hit the ground, a burst of wind on wind at a perfect seventy six degree velocity...

You only have kunai, explosive tags, and whatever is around you... Fumiko looked around quickly, then snatched a handful from the clump of leaves by her foot, stuffing them into her satchel.

"Temari!" she yelled. "Temari! I need you!"

"My body doesn't have any claws or horns to dig into the enemy with!" the toad complained. "... Use the transformation jutsu and change into something that has what we need!" The toad hit the ground hard, causing another miniature dust storm. He stood. "Then again, I am not particularly good at transformation. ...Don't worry about it! You shall act upon my will and make a hand sign."

Fumiko tuned them out. If they would make Shukaku still, she needed to figure out how, when, and where.

She ignored her body's complaints and jumped back the way Temari had left, retracing her path the best she could remember hearing her go. "Temari! Temari, do you have basic ninja tools on you? Tem-"

"What?" A voice snapped. Fumiko skidded.

"Sugar," she hissed as her body protested. "Temari, I need your help."

She looked at Fumiko incredulously. "With what?"

"I need a kunai knife, an explosive tag, and your fan. You see that big fox thing running toward Shukaku?"

"Yeah."

"Shukaku's going to attack, no doubt. We just have to wait for the right moment. Here's what I need you to do."

As she explained, Temari's face grew more and more uneasy. She fingered the edge of the fan on her back like she was unsure whether or not it was to blame for the situation. Either way, Fumiko was glad she had it.

"There's no way."

Behind them, Shukaku fired off an air bullet. The wind blew Fumiko's hair into a frenzy. She glanced back.

"We can do it from here. Just give me the stuff, please."

As she wrapped the tag around the kunai handle, Fumiko let her body go on autopilot and took a second to ponder just how stupid she was. Going up against the Shukaku, taking charge, bossing Temari around? Yes, lives were at stake. But still.

Another explosion of air nearly toppled her, but now she was almost set. Fumiko reached into her satchel, digging through the leaves she had hastily picked off the branches before her shaking fingers closed around her tiny, thumbnail sized weapon.

"This isn't gonna work." the fox-toad whined. "His power just keeps increasing! ... Tell me something I don't know!"

The creature used one of it's nine writhing tails to yank up a tree by it's roots like it was picking a dandelion. Then it launched itself, snarling, toward Shukaku.

"I can't believe I'm going to do this." Temari muttered, hefting her now open fan.

"At least you understand wind." Movement caught her eye. The battle continued on, with the fox-toad attempting to bash Shukaku in the head with it's tree. "Okay, as soon as it hits the ground, I'll throw the blade. When it glances off the backlash and travels high enough, I'll throw this-"

"I'll hit it with a counter blast at twenty four degrees and try to maneuver it into the explosion." Temari glanced at her with a new kind of look in her eyes. "You know, I never knew you were such a thinker, Fumiko."

"I try. Here it comes."

The backlash of a midair collision and the air bullet in it hurled into the forest, creating the same updraft as always, only now Fumiko squinted her eyes. One shot. She didn't think it through: she just threw it. The blade sailed and the wind caught the flat of the blade. As she'd hoped, it soared.

Just as the breeze died, Fumiko sent her acorn flying. The velocity kept the blade going and going. Temari slammed her fan sideways, redirecting winds and currents until the acorn spiraled high above the blade, which was starting to fall.

"Come on. Now!" Fumiko grunted.

The blade exploded. Like Uzumaki Naruto's extra clone, the small blast boosted the little missile forward with incredible speed.

There was an outraged cry as it nailed Shukaku directly in his big, creepy, target-sized eye.

It had all happened in a matter of seconds. Shukaku froze, reaching up his claws as if to scratch at his eyes. It was too late, though- the fox-toad fell on him then, biting and sinking his claws into Shukaku's skin. Shukaku screeched.

"Did that just work?" Temari said breathlessy, strapping her fan onto her back.

"I think so." The shock was starting to wear off. "Oh my sugar. That just worked!"

The fox-toad changed back into an ordinary giant toad, but Shukaku had no time to get away before a small orange dot jumped toward him from the toad's head. Fumiko shaded her eyes with one hand, even though she had no way of seeing.

Her chest and arm pulsed with pain, but that didn't matter.

"Not much time has passed since the medium went under," the toad said. "That one blow should have done the trick!"

"Awww, that's just great!" Shukaku wailed. "Gimme a break, I just got heerree..."

"We may have released the jutsu, but this guy's got some fight left in him!" the toad grunted. The ground shook as Shukaku/Gaara pushed him back like a linebacker, flattening trees like flowers as they went. Luckily, they were going in the opposite direction of Temari and her.

"I got you! ... how much strength does this guy have left in him? This isn't good. I used up all of my chakra!"

Silence stretched for what seemed like hours as the battle continued above.

..

Gaara didn't understand. Shukaku still clawed at his thoughts but now he was almost conscious.

But he was under attack. This shinobi was still trying to kill him. There had been confusion, then rage, and for a short while, peaceful sleep. But then Shukaku failed. Shukaku's rage hadn't ebbed and neither had his, and so his mind was still a red-hot broil of fury. Forget the others. Forget Shukaku. Forget the mission. Just Kill him.

Perhaps he wasn't as free as he thought.

"Get ready, you crazy monster!" Naruto yelled. He was wreathed in living chakra like his own.

Gaara put him palms together. "Die!"

As the ninja lunged at him, Gaara sent sand shooting from his leftover transformation to wrap around his hands and his arms and legs and waist, intending to crush him at every level.

"I..." Naruto struggled for a moment with the sand, then reared back. "I've had it with you!"

His forehead slammed into Gaara's with enough force to break skin. Warm blood escaped down his face.

...

The transformed, empty Shukaku body was starting to crack all over like a dropped boiled egg. Cracks crumbled along until the Shukaku's skin until it looked like the parched desert earth, and then suddenly and without warning, it shattered into streaming sand and dust. It blew into her face, stinging the flesh of her body until it almost seemed like home.

"Gaara!" she cried. "Temari, go find Kankuro! I'm gonna get Gaara!"

Temari reached out a hand but Fumiko was already moving.

As she leaped from tree to tree, the toads vanished with smoke and a wild blast of energized air that almost blew her off her perch. As it was, she made out Gaara's fling backwards but didn't see where he landed. Forced out tears commanded by the wind trailed slowly down her cheeks.

Fumiko didn't realize how close she was to the two of them until the toad's enormous sword finally evaporated with another blast of released energy. This time she was smacked sideways, although she only went a few feet before she hit a trunk. Luckily, she hit her good arm. The impact jarred her head up, and she saw the final collision between Gaara, and Uzumaki Naruto.

The fell like shooting stars.

She yelled when they hit the ground far, far below her.

Something fell from above, cloth and metal. By the luck of Suna, it landed draped across the branch by her feet. She picked it up, studied it, and quietly stowed it into her satchel for a later time.

She couldn't move all that quickly, but as fast as she could, she made her way down, branch by branch. As she did, she watched as Uzumaki Naruto got closer and closer to Gaara, inching forward on his chin. Even though he was no longer a threat to Gaara, it still chilled her- Uzumaki Naruto was prepared to kill.

Gaara was unmoving.

"No! Stay away!" he screamed at Uzumaki Naruto desperately.

...

Gaara was going to die. This ninja was going to kill him- he just wouldn't stop.

"It's almost unbearable... isn't it?" Naruto's voice said softly, looking up at him. "The feeling of being all alone. I know that feeling. I've been there; in that dark, and lonely place. But now there are... others. Other people who mean a lot to me. I care about them more than I do myself. And I won't let anyone hurt them."

"If they aren't good friends who accept you for who you are, demon or not, then they really shouldn't be your friends. Yoshiki taught me that."

"Hah," he muttered. "Easy to say when you have the option of having good friends."

"Hmm..." Fumiko murmured, thinking. A moment passed. Gaara wondered what she was thinking about- here face was screwed up like she was thinking really intensely. All of a sudden her eyes widened and she smacked her fist into her palm triumphantly, startling Gaara.

"I've got it!" Fumiko yelled. Gaara looked at her curiously, putting his bear on his lap and leaning forward to see her face.

"Got what?"

"I know how to solve your bad friend idea wish thing problem!"

"Huh?"

"I can be your good friend!" she smiled smugly, pleased with herself for the solution. Gaara blinked.

"What?" he said dumbly.

"We could be friends," Fumiko said. "If that's okay with you."

That's why I won't ever give up. I will stop you- even if I have to kill you. They saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me for who I am. They're my friends."

Gaara's fear evaporated, as did the Shukaku's hold on his mind. He looked up at the sky, at the clouds, and saw Yashamaru- Yashamaru as he remembered him, a loving uncle.

"Well love is... the heart's desire to serve someone precious to you. To watch over them. Like my sister did for you, Gaara."

Yashamaru's faint outline was filled in suddenly. His hair darkened to brown; his face became smaller and more fragile. His lips filled out. His storm gray eyes turned almond-shaped and morphed to a deep brown. The forever gentle smile was replaced by a worried, twisted, bloody frown.

"Gaara!"

..

"Fumiko..."

"Oh my sugar. Oh Kami. Oh... Gaara!" she touched his face, being careful not to touch his bruises or the bloody bump on his forehead. "Are you okay?"

"Fumiko... what..."

"Don't you dare ask me what's wrong with me, because I will explain that later."

"Naruto. That's enough."

Fumiko looked up. There were new tears in her eyes, partially out of relief and partially for fear of his utter incapability of moving. Sasuke knelt by Uzumaki Naruto's side. "Look, Sakura's gonna be all right." He looked over at Gaara and her. "The sand crumbled away; she's free. This guy's chakra is all used up."

"Oh... that's a relief."

Uzumaki Naruto feinted.

Temari and Kankuro were there in front of them, almost protectively.

"That's enough." Gaara said quietly beneath her. "It's over."

"Hey, Gaara..." Kankuro murmured uncertainly. "...All right, Gaara. Let's go."

Carefully he wound Gaara's arm over his shoulder and lifted him up. Temari went to do the same thing to Fumiko, but she shook her head. "Wait."

Shakily, she stood. Then, step by precarious step, she limped her way over to Sasuke.

He looked her up and down. She knew she looked like an absolute mess. Almost bent over from the pain in her ribs, arm in a makeshift sling; her hair was windswept and wild, and there was blood smeared all across her mouth. But whatever he was going to say he bit back.

She rummaged in her satchel for a moment, then pulled out Uzumaki Naruto's headband. She held it out silently.

"... give this to Uzumaki Naruto when he wakes up. Will you?"

Without a word, he took it.

Temari came up behind her and took her wrist, pulling it over her shoulders as well and securing her waist. For a second, Fumiko gazed down at Uzumaki Naruto.

Then she smiled.

"Thank you."

Temari and Kankuro leaped into the trees.

..

As they leaped through the trees, Fumiko continued to shoot worried glances Gaara's way. He seemed completely and utterly exhausted, unable even to lift his head. The wound on his forehead continued to bleed, and the marks on his face were getting darker and darker. Fumiko assumed she didn't look much better, but she hadn't just been possessed by a sand demon.

It hurt, being carried like this. Her ribs twinged. Temari had to be careful not to touch or jostle her sling lest she aggravate Fumiko's fractured arm, and the result was an awkward hold on her side that caused more pain than it should have. But, it was still better than trying to dash around on her own- even without her prosthetic it would suck.

She wondered what Gaara was thinking. For a while, his eyes had been downcast and slitted, like he was staying awake only for the sake of deep thinking.

"Temari... Kankuro... Fumiko..." he said quietly a few minutes later. Fumiko started and looked over.

"Gaara?"

"I'm sorry."

Fumiko felt the jolt that traveled through Temari's body, but she wasn't surprised. Uzumaki Naruto's determination... it was something that Shukaku could never understand, and that made it hard on Gaara to be friendly. Fumiko herself was less like a person to him, she was just always there. But Temari and Kankuro... Gaara had distanced himself from them.

And perhaps Uzumaki Naruto had changed his view on friendship.

"Don't worry about it." Kankuro said quietly.

Fumiko smiled and looked down at the green leaves and brown earth whizzing by beneath her. It blurred together until there was just one long, continuous stream of colors that she had come to love.

There was still a secret between them. So many things had gone wrong on this pseudo adventure, but Fumiko, thinking back on all of it, realized that she had grown. As had Gaara. Perhaps now he would understand what she saw in people- the possibility of a friend. They could work out their issues later. That's what friends did.

Perhaps coming to Konoha hadn't been such a bad thing, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WANTED HER TO BE USEFUL. Don't flame me with crap like saying that wouldn't work because 1) it's ninja logic and 2) an acorn that size sinking into an eye that big would be like the equivalent of getting a pin stuck in your eyeball. It HURTS.
> 
> OOkay. So Shukaku happened. Also, I realize that I left out most of Naruto's dialogue, but in reality, even Sasuke was having a hard time following that battle, let alone Fumiko (who is a villager and has bad eyesight) so she couldn't really hear or see what he was doing whilst on Gamabunta's head.


	24. Recovery Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: EXTREME FLUFF AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Traveling in her condition was, to say in the least, very difficult and very, very painful.

Fumiko took short, panting breaths that rattled her rib cage. The pain of her fractured arm and broken ribs was still shocking, despite the amount of time they had been traveling. Temari was practically carrying her and looked completely exhausted, but she didn't say a word as they trudged into the beginnings of a desert.

"Te-temari," Fumiko muttered for the first time in what she estimated to be almost a day after they had set off. "Y-you-"

"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth.

Fumiko's vision was blurry. Aside from the small amount of sugar in her satchel, there was no food, and no water. Her and the Sand Siblings had left quickly to avoid capture, Fumiko assumed, by the ANBU black ops at Konoha, and thus they had had no time to pack supplies.

Which meant no water, in the beginnings of an impossibly harsh desert climate.

With two injured and two carrying those injured, unless they stopped soon or found some kind of liquid to hydrate themselves, they would all collapse with no way to get word out to anyone.

"Tem-ari..." Fumiko managed. "Have to stop!"

"We're fine!" Temari snapped. Then she staggered to the side. "We have to get back to Suna..."

"Temari," Kankuro gasped from beside her. "I think she's right. We won't get to Suna if we die from dehydration."

Kankuro lugged with him a completely limp Gaara, who had passed out about seven hours ago. From pain, or chakra deprivation, Fumiko didn't know. But this kind of travel couldn't be good for his prone body.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Temari said almost snarkily, but it was more tired than sarcastic. "There isn't any shelter. If we stop now, we'll die of heat stroke instead!"

"C-cactai," Fumiko blurted. Her mind was sluggish but still functioning enough to remember the most basic teachings of desert life: If you are stranded in the desert with no water, find a non-toxic cactus.

For this very reason she had catalogued and memorized all of the known cactus species found in Suna's deserts.

Sugar, she loved useless PE classes.

"What?" Temari said quizzically.

"Put... me down." Fumiko murmured. "Just... stop... for one second."

Despite her earlier protests, Temari was more than happy to stretch Fumiko out onto the soft sand and collapse. Kankuro followed suit, placing Gaara gently on the sand next to her and sitting beside Temari.

Fumiko took a second to force her head to turn to the left so she could look at her unconscious best friend. His black eyes were closed, so it looked like somebody had taken magic marker to his face while he slept. Fumiko of course was familiar with these markings- she had a less prominent pair herself, although hers were more circles than completely covering her eyes.

His face was completely blank; skin turning red from the harsh, unfiltered desert sun. Gaara's lips were parted slightly in sleep, but his body was battered enough to shatter any kind of peaceful image. The gourd Kankuro had slid off his body before putting him down rested at his side- but was useless without him. It only contained more sand.

She didn't want to admit it to herself, but Fumiko was getting scared.

It caused her pain, but she dragged her hand across the blazing hot sand until she could touch Gaara's face. His skin was unbearably hot. Temari and Kankuro let her be, panting and catching their breath silently.

"Prickly-pear," Fumiko said at last, recalling the nasty, thorny bit of cactai that was particularly prominent on the outskirts of Suna's deserts- where they were now. Even from her position, she could see clumps of it growing around them.

Temari smacked her forehead, then hissed in pain as she aggravated a blush-colored sunburn.

"Prickly-pear cactus. Drinkable, non-toxic semi-liquid pulp. Found on the outside of the desert. Stupid." The last comment was directed at herself. "The heat must be getting to my head. Okay... I'll get some... in a minute..."

"No," Kankuro said warily. "I'll get some now."

He stood and staggered off. How he was going to harvest prickly-pear and bust it open without the necessary protection was beyond her, but he was certainly stubborn enough to try.

Funiko closed her eyes. A large portion of her uncovered skin hurt, particularly her face, due to deepening sunburn. Although hers wasn't nearly as bad as the others', thanks to her cloak. But it was hot, and her throat was so whisper-dry that it was painful.

"Ow! Dammit!" Kankuro cursed from right beside her. Fumiko would've jumped, had she had the energy. "Damn these stupid... here, Fumiko. Drink this."

Something sticky poured into her mouth, which she wasn't even aware she had opened. Fumiko chewed on it, and sweet red liquid seeped down her throat. It made her cough, but soothed the aching in both her throat and her stomach.

"Mm." She hummed, mouth full of cactus pulp.

Kankuro moved next to Gaara, who couldn't chew. He contemplated for a moment, then did his best to squeeze the pulp over Gaara's lips so that some of the red liquid would seep in, staining rivers of crimson into his flushed, previously porcelain skin.

Kankuro and Temari shared amongst themselves. Fumiko still chewed on hers, unwilling to waste anything until there was absolutely nothing left. When all that remained was tough pulp, she spat it out into the sand. Kankuro cursed again in pain, and her mouth filled with prickly-pear once more.

They remained this way until the sun set, draping any cloth or extra clothes they had over themselves and harvesting as much pulp as they could eat/drink. Fumiko eventually realized that Kankuro was using some of Crow's broken blades to stab open cactai, and his hands were lacerated and bleeding but for once, he didn't bother complaining.

When it was finally dark, and the broiling sun relinquished the sky to the moon, a deep chill set over the dunes.

Freezing. But better than the killing sun, and the cold air sort of soothed her burns.

It was then that they finally head out again, in the cold night rather than the day. Kankuro wrapped the largest amount of prickly-pear as he could in Crow's leftover bandages- if they made as much time as they hoped to tonight, they would no longer have access to the life-saving cactus plant.

It had been almost two days since they had fled from Konoha. Suna, at their current pace, was no more than a day's walk away, two at the most if they were forced to retire when the sun came out again.

"When… we get back… to Suna…" Fumiko murmured quietly awhile later. Temari glanced down at her for a moment, obviously on the verge of collapse, but still she kept going.

It was probably because Gaara would kill Temari if she left Fumiko out here.

But still.

"I… want to… write to Lee."

…

As the foursome stumbled into Suna, half-unconscious, badly sunburned, and dehydrated, they were immediately rushed to the hospital. Fumiko, finally content that they were safe, allowed herself to finally fade into darkness.

…

When Fumiko opened her eyes again, she could tell by the sour taste in her mouth that she had been asleep for a while.

She was staring up at the traditional yellow-brown ceiling of an abode building. It had been painted white, but the color had long since faded until it only served to pale the sandy shades.

As her mind woke up again, she began to feel things: an IV in her right arm, her left arm wrapped in something rough like bandages, pressure cuffs, scratchy stiff sheets under her fingers. Fumiko shifted, then winced as the dry skin on her face and neck stretched and stung.

"Agh…" She muttered, throat raspy.

"Fumiko!"

"Fumiko-chan!"

"You're awake!"

"Huh-" Fumiko started to eep, but before she could get the question-sound out, faces crowded into her vision.

Mai. Fumiko's mother. Yoshiki.

Gaara?

"Where-?"

"Gaara's in the room just past this one," Mai said. "Still unconscious. Kami damn it, Fumiko. You scared the crap out of us and when you wake up, you can't even manage to say 'Good morning'?"

"Mai. Language." Their mother scolded. Mai scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"What happened?"

"Temari and Kankuro dragged you and Gaara here yesterday afternoon." Yoshiki answered. "You and Gaara are in the worst shape. How in the world did you manage to break three ribs and fracture your arm?"

Fumiko's first thought was: Oh. I was right.

Her second thought was: Oh, yeah. Gaara's secret.

"Something happened," Fumiko answered. "I'm not sure what… I was under a Genjutsu or something. And… I don't really want to tell you what happened."

Gaara had attacked her.

"Why not?" Fumiko's mother demanded.

Gaara had attacked her.

"Temari won't tell us either, she said it wasn't her story to tell!" Mai grumbled, obviously frustrated. "Oh by the way, her and Kankuro are fine. But you all kind of look like tomatoes."

Fumiko felt a rush of gratitude for the eldest Sand Sibling. Telling Gaara that he had, in a partially transformed state, had viciously attacked her with an intent to kill would be hard enough, let alone telling Yoshiki, who already had a healthy dislike for her best friend.

"I…" Fumiko paused as her head slanted sideways. Aside from her family and Yoshiki, nobody was here. "…Where's dad?"

"He's here." Her mother said with an almost-grimace. "He's arguing with the nurse."

"Uh?" Fumiko almost questioned, trying to sit up.

This small action triggered a wave of pain and dizziness. It shorted out her thought processes and sent her thumping back into her pillow. From somewhere, she heard voices.

She dreamed of burning hot sand.

…

"Jeez, just wake up already."

Fumiko cracked an eye open. Her face and arm hurt less; but her ribs still throbbed painfully. Medical ninjutsu was harder to use on such internal parts of the body- safer to let it heal naturally than to mess it up more by accident.

"Hngh!" Fumiko snorted a cough. Her arm was still in bandages and a real sling, tightly tied against her chest. There were no wrappings on her ribcage- they didn't really make a difference.

This time around, she recognized more details because her bed was sat up a little bit, and her head was clearer.

She was dressed in a thin, light green hospital gown. Her feet were bare. Beside her on the nightstand were two flower vases and a partially crumpled get-well card. Her face felt gooey, and she recognized the reeking scent of aloe vera and a mild poison antidote.

'You slept for a long time."

"Temari? What… happened?"

"Since you fell asleep again, or at the Chuunin exams? Don't tell me you have amnesia."

"Um… both, maybe?" Fumiko rubbed her eyes with her good hand, wrist prickling as the needle shifted. It didn't particularly bother her.

The sandy-haired kunoichi sat on the visitor's chair with her giant fan, cleaning the wood. Her face and arms were still a tender shade of pink.

"What?"

"Has Gaara woken up yet?"

"No."

"Oh… Temari, what happened with the whole Konoha-suddenly-sent-shinobi-after-us thing?"

Temari's face was grim. "The fourth kazekage… dad… is dead."

Oh.

"How?"

"Orochimaru killed him."

"Orochimaru?"

Temari shook her head. She folded up her fan and put it aside before sighing. She sat rigidly in the way people with sunburns did, but at the same time, she looked deflated. "Gaara can tell you when he wakes up. I… don't want to explain it."

"Can I see him?"

"Now?"

"Now. Need to see if he's okay."

"Fumiko, you can't get up. You broke three ribs less than five days ago."

"No?"

"No."

Fumiko smiled apologetically. "Then I'm really sorry about this."

Temari quirked an eyebrow, staring at her. Fumiko had gained total eye contact. "For what?"

For this, she thought. Rapidly she began building a colorful bridge between her and Temari's chakras, weaving and warping what Temari saw with what she thought she saw.

"Temari-sama! Somebody has broken into the Kage tower!" Fumiko trilled with pulsing clarity, orchestrating the bang of a door and painting a shinobi with semi-rushed pixelly weapons. Thankfully, Temari didn't notice.

While Temari was busy 'running to the tower' Fumiko carefully removed the IV from her wrist and licking off the little spot of blood that bloomed in its place. She swung her legs over the side of the bed haltingly, reaching out and grasping her prosthetic, which had been placed between the flower vases. She put it on quickly, sliding off until her foot touched the cold tiled floor.

She grunted as she stood, but the pain had been worse before, jumping through trees and throwing acorns and fighting winds.

She padded silently to the door, pausing only to send a last guilty look toward Temari, who still sat rigidly on her chair with a blank expression on her face. Then she left, slowly creaking the door open to check for hovering nurses.

When the coast was clear, she made her way to the door to the left of hers. The door stuck a little, and she had to shove on it, but when it finally pushed open, she was met with an eerily identical room.

The only difference between this one and hers was that there were no flowers or cards, an out-cold Gaara laid unhindered in the bed save for a single IV, and Kankuro snoozed in the visitor's chair.

"Oh, Gaara…" she murmured at the ugly green-black bruises flowered across his face. Aside from that and the sunburn, however, Fumiko guessed that he chakra drain was the only other problem. His face was flushed; when she tested it she was surprised to find him burning with fever.

Quickly, she tore a strip of cloth from the hem of her gown (hoping that the nurses and doctors wouldn't mind) and soaked it in the ever-present pitcher of water on the nightstand. She folded it and draped it across Gaara's forehead.

There was nowhere to sit- Kankuro was in the visitor's chair- so Fumiko simply scooted into the small niche sliver of mattress beside the usually cool-skinned Gaara. It was discomforting to feel such heat radiating from him, but still, she curled into his side and fell soundly asleep once more.

On and off she woke and re-wet the cloth. Hours later, Temari burst into the room, startling both her and Kankuro awake.

"Fumiko!"

…

It would almost be like a game to Fumiko, had she not been so worried about her friend.

Whenever she was awake, she would quietly disconnect herself from her medical restraints, then go into Gaara's room. When the visitor's chair was empty, she would sit and/or sleep on that, and if it was occupied, she would either get hauled back off to her room or sleep on the bed, depending on who it was.

Gaara's fever had long since broken, and now the only thing left was to wait for his chakra to replenish. Both his and his biju's chakra had been drained, so he had a long wait before that happened- which meant no one was quite sure when he would wake up.

Gaara had almost no visitor's, save for Temari, Kankuro, and the odd doctor or nurse. Fumiko, however, would certainly wait in his room until his eyes opened.

The doctors, to their credit, tried as hard as they could to keep her sedentary while her ribs healed, save for physical therapy. They even eventually posted chuunin-level shinobi outside her door, but Fumiko had her ways.

Temari always tried to keep her in her bed. Kankuro, however, didn't "really give a damn if you're in here or in there. Just don't break your ribs again, Gaara'd kill me."

The medication and painkillers they pumped into her blood whenever she was in her room made her unbelievably tired- or giddy, depending on which one they used- and so she spent most of her time sleeping. She tried to stay awake, painting during the day and watching the stars at night to keep herself occupied as she stayed awake.

She also write letters- or, letter. Lee's was the only address she really had. Asuka had flown to her window days ago- she mailed it for her. It was only six words long: Sugar- I am so sorry, Lee.

Unfortunately, she still fell asleep much of the time.

Her family visited once or twice. Even her father came in, and although he was more subdued than usual, he still muttered and grumbled incomprehensibly under his breath. Yoshiki grew frustrated with her apparent lack of concern for her 'stay in bed' doctor's orders. Even Baki visited her once. It was a disturbing visit.

Either way, she always waited.

Eventually the staff were forced to accommodate her, lest she injure herself further.

It was upsetting when, as Gaara finally woke up, she happened to be asleep.

…

When Gaara's consciousness finally bubbled to the surface of his mind, he realized, with much displeasure, that everything hurt.

His half-growled groan tore at his dry throat. His skin itched. His body pulsed and throbbed like one giant bruise, particularly his forehead.

It took a few seconds before he remembered what had happened.

Instantly Gaara's eyes snapped open. Despite the blistering pain from the softly glowing lights hanging above him, he squinted and rotated his head back and forth, trying to clear his vision. When the blurred colors finally focused, Gaara had to do a double-take.

He was in a hospital, that much was for certain.

But why was there a whole other bed crammed where it wasn't supposed to be?

His aqua blue eyes landed on a scattering of brown hair and green nightgown sprawled haphazardly on her back across the mattress in sleep. One arm was bound to her chest, the other, lightly bandaged and stuck with an IV. Her face was a light shade of pink.

Fumiko.

When Gaara looked at her, Shukaku was suddenly angry. He howled in rage, clamoring to be released. Gaara flinched and grasped his forehead, ignoring the pain in his body.

But! Still ALIVE? But I killed her!

Ice flushed through Gaara's veins.

"Don't you dare ask me what's wrong with me, because I will explain that later."

The memory came with sudden sharp clarity. Fumiko, battered, her hair hanging in his face as she leaned over him…

Had he…?

"She wouldn't stay in her own room." A voice said from beside him, causing him to flinch again and whip his head to his other side. Kankuro reclined in the visitor's chair a few feet away from his bed.

'What?"

"Fumiko," Kankuro clarified, jutting his chin out in her direction. "Temari and I made sure she was in the room beside yours, but she wouldn't stay in bed. She kept getting up, taking off her supports, and sneaking in here. Dunno how she kept getting past the guards the doc eventually posted- she climbed out of her window once. I was in here, just sitting, and all of a sudden your balcony window opens and she says 'Oh, hi, Kankuro'. Nearly scared me to death."

"Kankuro…"

"It kept messing up her ribs," he continued like Gaara hadn't spoken. "But she would come in here and sleep on this chair or on your bed. Couldn't stop her. Eventually they just lugged her bed in here to keep her still for two seconds."

"How long… have I been here?"

"A little more than a week."

Gaara frowned as the pain in his head began to fade. He hadn't been resting- he'd been full on sleeping. Perhaps being unconscious was different from being asleep, because his sleep had been dreamless, and the hospital was still intact.

"What did I…" he said, frowning. "I mean, what happened to…"

"Dunno." Kankuro shrugged. "I wasn't there when it happened and Temari won't tell me."

"After I fell…" Gaara mused, shifting his head again so that his eyes rested on the white-yellow ceiling. "How did we get here?"

"Me and Temari dragged you guys across the desert. It was hot. By the way, your gourd is heavier than you are- maybe you should eat more."

"What-? Fumiko couldn't walk?"

"No. Like I mentioned earlier, she busted up her ribs pretty bad."

Gaara tried hard to mask the panic that flashed across his face- he really did. But Kankuro saw it anyway. His eyes softened somewhat, gained a steely kind of concentration.

"Gaara… I'm sorry. The way everyone treats you…"

This was unfamiliar territory. Gaara was almost tempted to bare his teeth in an attempt to frighten him off, but that wouldn't have made a difference any more. Kankuro had seen something- perhaps Gaara's mortality. And now, the mask was gone.

"I just... I see it now." he continued, not quite awkwardly, but Gaara could tell he felt just as uncomfortable. "You... and Fumiko. You can care. I didn't realize it before. It always confused me..."

Stop, Gaara thought. Just stop. I'm a monster... remember?

"G-gaara? Ohmysugar! Gaara! You're awake!" There was a slippery sound of sheets. Kankuro cut off in the middle of whatever he was about to say, and Gaara couldn't truthfully say he wasn't relieved.

If he'd been standing up, Gaara would've been tackled.

"Uff!"

"You've been asleep forever, and you had a fever, and Temari kept kicking me out, and you still have bruises all over your face, and you have to be hungry by now-" Fumiko was speaking so quickly Gaara almost couldn't follow. "The nurses didn't know when you would wake up, I couldn't tell if you were having nightmares, but I couldn't stop falling asleep-"

"Fumiko." Gaara said quietly.

"You were out for almost two weeks! Even across the desert, you were getting sunburns and weren't drinking anything, but you were still just unconscious the entire time-"

"Fumiko-" Kankuro tried.

"And I was worried! But you're awake now- Ooh, I should do something! Make something- I'm so glad you're okay! You scared me!"

Fumiko finally seemed to run out of breath then, panting softly, still hugging his shoulders awkwardly around the IV cord. Her hair splayed across his neck. She hadn't even bothered attaching her prosthetic, opting instead to just fall on him.

"I'm going to go find Temari," Kankuro said after a moment, heaving himself out of the chair. "I'll be back in... a while."

He disappeared out the door.

A long minute passed. Then another. Fumiko eventually let go, sitting beside him quietly, leaning against the headboard. Gaara, wincing, sat up, setting himself carefully beside her.

"We have a lot to talk about," Fumiko said wistfully, resting her chin on her drawn up knees. Her eyes slid to his. "... don't we?"

Gaara pursed his lips. Nearly two weeks of total, dreamless sleep had left him feeling reenergized, although he could still tell by the fatigue bristling in his cells that his chakra was nowhere near replenished yet. His guess was that it had taken Shukaku a while to replenish his chakra before Gaara could begin to recover his own.

Not quite tired.

But, still... did he really want to do this?

Confess his lie?

Learn what he had done?

He took a deep breath. Fumiko didn't judge him- that much was sure, if she was hurting herself to stay by his side while he slept. No, if he knew Fumiko at all, she just wanted to know. Know why. And, of course, what it was.

"Where do you want me to start?"

Fumiko chewed her lip. "Um... let's go from the beginning. Then I can tell you what happened after you, you know, went berserk." She managed a tired smile. "If I start to fall asleep, wake me up. Sugar, I really don't like painkillers."

"The..." Where was the beginning? Where had this all started?

Baki.

Before he could pass, Baki gripped his shoulder. Sort of. It was more like he gripped the layer of sand that sprang up an inch or so away from his shoulder. Gaara stiffened.

"Gaara," Baki said. "You can not, under any circumstances, tell Fumiko about this."

"Why not?"

"She would never allow it."

"Remember... That first day, after the preliminaries, you went to the hospital to bring everybody brownies?" One of his small smiles tugged his lips at the thought. "You left early to get there on time."

"Yeah."

"That was when it started. Baki called me, Temari, and Kankuro for a meeting while you were out."

...

As Gaara explained, Fumiko didn't quite know how to react.

His story was often punctuated by I'm sorrys, but otherwise was uninterrupted by herself or anyone else. Kankuro wasn't here, but the story wore on for what seemed like a long time. Gaara was pouring his stress, his fear, his pent-up frustration into this confession, everything he'd felt during the lie was right there in his voice.

He was painfully sincere. This was more an apology than an answer to her simple question- Why?

But to betray an entire village? The idea made her uneasy. She might have accidentally lost friends back at the hospital, or even the other Shinobi. There was nothing they hated more than traitors, and by default, Fumiko had betrayed them. All of that trouble. And for what?

Gaara said that the Kazekage had sent them. But the Kazekage was dead.

Baki had told her what really happened. The stolen face, the Kage battle on the roof.

Konoha's Hokage was dead.

Fumiko had missed a lot trapped under that Genjutsu- which unnerved her to the highest degree, because Genjutsu was her area of expertise. She remembered vaguely being unbearably tired, and the odd, hallucinogenic dreams she had had. Waking up to a terrifying battle, with shinobi of Konoha trying their hardest to kill them.

Gaara had to stop when he reached the part of the tale during which he transformed. Those memories were foggy at best.

For her part, Fumiko began by explaining what had really happened- that the man wearing the Kazekage's face hadn't actually been Gaara's father, that he had died far before the Chuunin exams had ever begun. If this upset Gaara, he didn't show it, although he looked slightly disturbed.

She described waking up in a forest, surrounded by battle sounds. She left out the part about her bleeding arm, but everything else was game. The fight, Sasuke's collapse. Uzumaki Naruto's sudden appearance.

Gaara was able to fill in some of the blanks, recalling bits and pieces of the fight from where he'd been more in control. Uzumaki Naruto dominated many of these memories, as well as Sakura. He shivered as he mentioned his wild memories.

Fumiko continued from there, trying to remember everything that had happened. For now, she tried to block out his almost-apology, choosing instead to approach that situation later. Fumiko hesitated for a moment, then haltingly told him of his Sand Shuriken attack.

Gaara's face screwed up. It took another moment or two to calm him down again.

When he stopped apologizing and muttering long enough for Fumiko to get another word in, she smiled and put her uninjured had on his shoulder before continuing. She described to the best of her ability Gaara's transformation, and paused briefly on the subject of his playing-possum jutsu.

"Why would you do that?"

"I..." the confusion in his eyes was palpable. "I don't remember. I was angry."

She forged ahead, sheepishly explaining her acorn-piercing strategy. Gaara nodded to himself, confirming that he remembered Shukaku's intense pain from his dreams. Fumiko didn't need to explain much more of the fight- which was good, since she hadn't see any of it. Gaara told his bit from after he had woken up, Uzumaki Naruto's determination and the smashing blows to his face.

She supposed that explained the bruises.

Gaara remembered everything right up until his eventual collapse, so Fumiko skipped that and went straight on to the trek from Konoha to Suna.

"We ran," Fumiko finished. "You and me couldn't move, so Kankuro and Temari carried us. We left everything behind."

"Your things?"

"Still in the apartment, probably." Fumiko grinned then laughed. "Unless the ANBU decided to confiscate my paintings as evidence."

"Oh."

"So after that, we came back to Suna." Fumiko grimaced. "That wasn't so much fun. We didn't have any water or food. We ate prickly-pear cactus- Kankuro basically forced it down your throat to keep you alive. And, well, even you got sunburned. I'm the only one still injured... aside from your face, anyway."

Gaara was quiet for a moment.

"And Fumiko... about..."

Ah. So he had caught her omitted response.

Fumiko leaned her head back against the wall, eyes flickering up to the ceiling. Kankuro still hadn't returned. Temari was nowhere that she knew- probably at the tower, filling out more paperwork to try and secure the Kage tower as a home until a new Kazekage was chosen.

"I don't... I don't know, Gaara." Unexpected water pricked the backs of her eyes, but she didn't cry. "We... we're best friends, right?"

"Yes." Instant response. Fumiko smiled, eyes still fixed on the ceiling.

"And best friends... hide things. Blur things. Sugarcoat a lot of stuff. But..." Here she finally looked at him, turning her entire head so that her cheek was resting on the wall. "Best friends don't lie."

Gaara was silent.

"I asked you... so many times, I asked you... what was wrong. Why you seemed so much more stressed than usual. Your answers, they made sense, so I didn't push it. But..." Fumiko bit her lip. "But... I should've known better. That's what bothers me. I know you, Gaara. At least I like to think I do. Was I really so busy that I couldn't tell something was up with my best friend?"

Fumiko hadn't realized up until the words left her mouth that they were true.

It wasn't the lie.

It was the fact that she had believed it.

"Fumiko!" he blurted. His eyes narrowed a little. "What? You're mad at yourself?"

"I dunno." her eyes didn't leave his. "Maybe I am. But it's more like I'm... frustrated. Anxious. Could it happen again? That..."

"Be mad at me," he said in a low voice. "Be mad at me because I somehow figured out how to lie to you. Be mad at me because I exploited the fact that you were finally doing something without me. But don't be mad at you. You were just being normal. It's not normal to spend every waking second with a jinchuriki who's demon would attack you in a second, given the chance."

"I'm not normal, remember?" Fumiko rebutted. "I'm Fumiko."

Gaara scowled and turned his eyes away, staring at his hands, which rested in his lap.

"I can't remember attacking you." he said, voice strained. "But it won't shut up! Warning me not to sleep! Waiting for another chance..." Gaara's fists clenched, eyes shadowed. "I lied to you for an entire month about something that jeopardized your friendships and even your life. I came so close... I could've... and you, lost forever. Why don't you hate me?" His scowl deepened. "I know I do."

"Oh, Gaara, don't say that."

"If I had lost you..."

Fumiko was shocked to catch little glimmers darkened by shadows on his cheeks.

"Because of something so petty..."

She reached out for him, but he didn't respond.

"Because Shukaku just can't stand my being happy about anything..."

"Gaara..."

"No." he said shortly. "No, that won't ever happen again. You won't ever have to catch me lying again. Don't worry about that."

"Gaara-"

"No. You don't get it. You don't... you can't..."

"I do." Fumiko wrapped her small hand around Gaara's fists. A traitor tear slipped down her cheek, coming to rest on the tip of her nose. "And I forgive you."

A jolt raced through Gaara's body and he shuddered.

"What if it happens again?" he snapped, finally unable to control himself, whipping to face her. His eyes were troubled. It had been so long since Gaara had cried in front of her that she had almost forgotten how his eyes twisted when he did so. "That was me who couldn't control it. Shukaku or not, it was my fault."

Fumiko smiled at him, eyes crinkling. It seemed to startle him into silence.

"Gaara, just because it was you, doesn't mean it was your fault. I won't lie. It might happen again. But... it just isn't you that hurt me."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Right now, the Shukaku is screaming at you, isn't it? Don't deny it; you just admitted it. If it told you so... if he tried to make you do it right now... would you kill me if you could?"

"No!"

"Okay. Now, theoretically, say I'm capable of killing you. You have a chance before I attack. Would you kill me?"

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "No."

"Well, there you go." Fumiko smiled to herself. Then she cringed as her ribs protested her position. The pain mediation must have been wearing off.

"... Where's my sand?" Gaara seemed agitated.

"Your gourd? Uh. I think Kankuro brought it to the Tower."

Gaara twitched. "Well lie down or something. You're in pain."

A giggle escaped her lips. Gaara had meant to lie her down himself out of habit, but had realized there was no sand nearby to do it with. Naturally the lack of protection would unnerve him even further. Then she paused.

"Don't worry." An almost sad smile curved her lips. "Nobody's going to try and assassinate you anymore."

...

When she finally closed her eyes, Gaara wasn't quite so sure he actually wanted her to fall asleep and leave him alone in a strange hospital room with two beds, thoughts banging around in his head. But it was too late to change his mind- she slumped against him and was asleep in seconds.

"I do. And I forgive you."

Gaara wanted to be relieved. But instead, he found himself anxious and unsatisfied.

If she had yelled, screamed at him, pounded on him with her fists, he would have felt better. There would have been no sand to stop her, and he was bruised anyway. But she hadn't. Fumiko had only forgiven him. And that was just not enough to quell his guilt.

Ordinarily, when things like this happened- he had never attacked her before, but he had come close- usually he compensated by watching over her until either she told him to stop, or his sand stopped responding due to lack of chakra.

But he couldn't even do that.

It made him feel totally useless.

So he settled for glaring at the nurse that tried to check her vitals until she fled. Nobody aside from Kankuro, Temari, or Fumiko would try to get close enough to him to be able to take blood anyway.

Kankuro returned, quirked an eyebrow, and then left again, closing the door behind him.

...

Fumiko didn't move again for a long time.

When she did, though, it was to the storm which had rolled in suddenly and without warning.

In Suna, it was almost always bone dry. There was no soil to absorb liquid, no draining systems to handle flooding. The heat evaporated most any small water source, so by the time there was enough moisture in the air to create a storm cloud, it was a pretty darn big one.

So in Suna, when it rained, it poured, and the streets flooded like rivers. Entire vendor stands were washed away, as well as anything that wasn't brought inside when the dark cloud billowed over the village.

Now her nose was pressed against the glass, watching the droplets pour down.

"Hmm." she mused, tracing her fingers through the fog left behind by her warm breath. Gaara watched from the bed. "I need my paints."

"How long has it been since it rained?" he questioned.

Fumiko held her thumb up to the window between her markings, turning it this way and that, measuring the trails of water on her windows. Her lips pursed in thought. "Year, year in a half, maybe."

A loud thunderclap slammed through the air. Fumiko jumped and skittered back to the bed.

...

"This... what is it?"

"I think it's... chicken?" Fumiko guessed, poking at the slab of something on her plate. It stuck. "Or maybe a ball of brownish cheese."

"I never ask this... but can I borrow your sugar?"

"Here. Keep it. I have more."

"Thank you."

...

"We might as well. I mean I'm not allowed to leave for another two days and you won't leave until I do." Fumiko said.

"You only have one hand." Gaara pointed out.

Fumiko snorted.

In reality, Gaara wouldn't move if he was paid to. Fumiko had her fingers in his hair, combing through it, pushing it away from his forehead so she could paint his kanji. He was stretched out on the bed, head in Fumiko's lap, relaxing just enough to be more than a little comfortable.

Soon enough there was the touch of a cold brush against his scar. "I promise, I can paint with one hand."


	25. Two Halves

"Hmm."

The nurse shifted her hold, sliding her fingers into the crook of Fumiko's knee, and squeezed to feel the bones there. Fumiko just watched with equal parts curiosity and boredom. Well, she wasn't bored exactly, but she was going to go stir crazy if she had to sit in this hospital for one more day.

"Yes," the nurse said at last. "I believe you're due for another fitting."

"A new prosthetic?" Fumiko paused, putting a finger to her lips. "Hmm. There were pains while I was in Konoha, but I figured it was because I was walking too much."

"No," the nurse said, rising from her position kneeled in front of the bed. She avoided Gaara's careful gaze. "Those were growing pains. Your bones are growing again."

Fumiko's face screwed up. "Will I need another surgery?"

The nurse shook her head. "I don't think so. It would just be beneficial to fit you with a new prosthesis before you go. But, your ribs are almost healed, and you can probably take the sling off in another week or so."

"Okay. Thank you." Fumiko nodded, smiling. She was out of blank spaces on her recent prosthetic, anyway. Gaara leaned against the doorframe.

Gaara was usually a sedentary person, preferring to watch from corners or dark spaces, protecting, but never really participating unless specifically asked to. However, sedentary or not, he was used to walks across the sand, swinging, following as Fumiko darted from place to place. He was almost constantly moving, or at least changing scenery every now and again.

Even he was getting anxious from all of the sitting around.

Fumiko reattached her prosthetic and stood, nodding at the nurse with a smile, then stepping across the room to where Gaara was waiting. Temari had brought Fumiko one of her sets of clothes and her cloak a couple days prior, so she no longer wore the scratchy green nightgown. Gaara had changed as well, hurrying to rid himself of any sign of weakness.

Fumiko had to admit that it had looked a little strange to see him in his hospital bed, under the blankets and sleeping; pale, wearing the green hospital clothes, hooked to an IV. Usually, even when he wasn't being stoic, he wasn't so... vulnerable.

Gaara's bruises had all but faded, so that his skin was barely a shade darker where he'd been hit. If you didn't know what to look for, you wouldn't be able to see it. Fumiko herself was still limping from her rib injuries, and her arm was still in a sling, but she would be released today. You could say she was in a good mood.

"Ready, Gaara?" she asked. "I just need to make a fitting appointment, then we can go."

He nodded, made a little grunted affirmation noise that sounded kind of like Un. She laughed as they walked out into the hallway together, bumping his shoulder with hers.

…

"This weekend?" Fumiko grinned. "Sure, that's perfect. I'm supposed to come back anyway for a checkup. Thank you."

The attendant didn't respond.

Fumiko knew this woman. Ms. Tatsuno Kaiya worked with her mother, and had known Fumiko since she was a very small child. Fumiko, when she wasn't in the village school or playing with Gaara, had lived in this hospital, either for prosthetic work, or with her mother as she worked.

Not once had Kaiya ever said her name.

Her eyes were trained on her desk, staring at nothing, and she was practically shaking; with anger or fear Fumiko couldn't tell. Haltingly she reached out Fumiko's appointment receipt.

Beside her, Gaara looked away.

Fumiko sighed, a small wisp of a breath that expelled what felt like sadness. She had spent so much time in Konoha, in the hospital, amongst those that accepted her and Gaara to the point where they constantly asked after them, smiling, friendly; she had forgotten what it was like to be rejected.

"… Come on, Gaara. Let's go home now."

He nodded. As they walked, Fumiko could almost feel him trying to regain his cool aura, struggling to recall his place in this frozen desert atmosphere. She herself would flourish, she would adjust and become herself in mere seconds under the evil stares, but Gaara…

For the first time, Gaara…

Had been accepted by people other than herself.

To him… the sudden isolation was shocking all over again.

Fumiko looked up at the sky as they walked. Inquisitive lines of clouds dotted the sky, white; but so small and thin that they were merely lighter shades of blue in comparison to the snow-white, rolling, blooming clouds of Konoha.

Sandy air filled her lungs, dry, warm, just like she remembered it. Right away, sand crept into her sandal, the sun burned heat straight into her skin, the hot air swept her hair back in a flurry of brown curls. The sounds of a bustling street, vendors calling out goods and prices, scuffling feet and muttered thoughts filled her ears, familiar and welcoming.

A slight smile grew across her face.

She was home.

"Kami, I missed it here." She said, staring up at the blue, blue sky and then looking down; gaze sweeping across the shops and vendors lining the streets, still damp from the deluge of rain. People chattered and filtered through each other, carefully avoiding the pair as they walked.

"You did?"

"I… I shouldn't, but I did. The air, the sun… the people… it's so busy, not like Konoha." She smiled at him, a half-smile that suggested mischief, except that Fumiko wasn't mischievous. "Don't you feel it?"

Gaara's eyes lingered across the crowded streets, the tall yellow abode buildings. The sand seemed to welcome him home, slipping around his eyes and into his hair and under his palms, like an old friend.

"… yes. I guess I do."

Fumiko gasped. "Ohmysugar! I know where we need to go first!"

"Huh?" Gaara looked at her, puzzled. "Where?"

Her smile was blinding, stretching from ear to ear until it looked like her face would split in half. "The swing set!"

She took his wrist and then took off, running in her haphazard, jagged way, ignoring the pain in her ribs and the jolt in her arm, ignoring the stares and scowls. Gaara stumbled along behind her, but she could feel his growing smile.

…

It really had been too long since they had come here.

Gaara looked over the battered old swings. One side was plain, blank; it barely looked used at all. The other, however, looked exactly as anything of Fumiko's would- loud, there. It was painted with swirls of color and images that grew in maturity, as her skills had grown. There were deep grooves dug into the sand, signs of her dragging her feet and kicking up sand as she played.

The difference between them was orchestrated perfectly. Suddenly Gaara wanted to take a picture or something. Him, low, easily overlooked in favor of the creature beside him; her, bright enough to color them both.

Fumiko laughed with delight and made a beeline for her favorite place to sit. They were really getting too big for these swings. But Gaara supposed he didn't much care about size when she smiled at him, waving, shouting, kicking the ground to get her swing started.

Gaara himself didn't really swing. He sat on his swing and rocked gently back and forth, back and forth, using his feet to keep a steady, gentle monochrome. It wasn't long until Fumiko was soaring above his head, tucking her legs under the seat so her feet didn't stop her flight.

Like a bird.

Gaara smiled, just a little.

He really had missed this place.

"Gaara, Gaara," she sang, voice whooshing as she zipped past. "I'm so glad to be out of that hospital!"

"Me too."

Surrounded by sand he felt much better. Sand was his home, after all. He had felt exposed without his gourd, but the nurses, most likely out of fear, had not allowed Kankuro to bring or keep the gourd at the hospital for him. He had been totally defenseless, but Fumiko was right- there was no one out to get him, any more.

Fumiko stuck out her prosthetic as she came swinging down, digging further into a groove and causing sand to whirl up in a small storm.

Gaara made it dance, twirling his hand in small circles. She laughed as it blew into her hair. Gaara was careful not to let it in her eyes.

"Pfft! That tickles!"

"Hey, look. The freaks are back."

Gaara's rocking halted. Fumiko's stop was not as subtle: it took her a second to realize what was going on, and then she dragged her foot and prosthetic through the sand until she eventually slowed, skidding noisily to a standstill. The swirling cloud of sand dropped.

"Hello," Fumiko greeted.

Gaara knew all three of them. After all, they had been in the same academy class.

"We thought you'd died or something at the Chuunin exams, sand-freak," one of them scoffed. "I can't believe they let you in the hospital."

Gaara's expression was neutral, eyes cooling instantly.

The children here had grown bolder and bolder once they realized that Fumiko ordinarily stopped him from killing people. Still careful, but aggressive and smug.

"That's not very nice." Fumiko muttered.

"What happened to your arm, lead foot?" another asked.

Fumiko's expression grew guarded, a new expression Gaara usually only saw when someone asked about how she lost her leg. She wouldn't tell them it was Gaara's fault because she was always adamant in the view that it wasn't.

"What's the point in telling them something like that?" she told him flippantly with a shrug. "It's not your fault, not my story to tell, and not any of their business. They would just make a bigger deal out of it than it is."

"It fractured." She said truthfully.

"Who fractured it?" the boy jeered. "Or did you just trip and fall?"

Fumiko gave a lopsided smile. "Sure."

The trio seemed momentarily confused by her answer, glancing at each other as if to ask, did we hear that right? But soon enough their grins returned. It wasn't really her they were trying to aggravate anyway.

The fact that they were acting like this was absurd. There was still black draped across the village in mourning for the lost Kazekage- even they wore all-black clothes. Fumiko and himself had actually missed the funeral, stuck like they had been in a stuffy hospital room. Not that Gaara would have gone anyway, and if he hadn't, Fumiko wouldn't. But still... Suna seemed so… disloyal.

"And you are?" Gaara said coolly, although he knew exactly who they were.

The boy at the head of the group fumed. "You know who we are, monster!"

Gaara felt bold. Perhaps he had learned a thing or two from Naruto. "If by now the only word you know how to say is 'monster' then perhaps you should go back to the Academy."

Fumiko hid a smile behind her hand. The boy opened his mouth, closed it, and then scowled viciously.

"At least my dad is still around to teach me new words, psycho."

Gaara's eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me," Fumiko said. "But that's uncalled for. You're still wearing black to honor the fourth kazekage, for sugar's sake, not make him the butt of your mean jokes."

The boy scoffed, although by now the other two looked uneasy. "Hey… Toushi…" one tried.

"Shut up!"

"Ne, Gaara. Maybe we should go somewhere else now."

They were blocking their way, not that it mattered. As gracefully as one could get off a swing too small for them, Gaara stood. Fumiko followed suit, although she immediately stumbled through a small pile of sand. Gaara had to catch her, with his arms this time and not his sand.

This caused the boys to burst into raucous laughter. Gaara shot them a death glare, but they were a little overconfident this time.

"Watch your step, lead foot!"

"Careful, wouldn't want to break your other foot!"

"You'd think by now a cripple would learn how to walk."

"Ignore them, Gaara." Fumiko said, loud enough for them to hear. Then she smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. "They aren't worth it."

This served to irritate them further. When Gaara shrugged, set her on her feet, and walked with her past them, it only got worse.

"Hey! We're still talking to you!"

Gaara, following Fumiko's lead, said absolutely nothing, opting instead to walk on toward the mouth of the large alley as if they hadn't said anything at all.

"Toushi, wait-" one of his friends yelped, but Gaara had already seen Toushi's move as they walked past. He'd been leaning toward the ground. Gaara didn't even look back.

"If you throw that rock, I'll crush your hand."

They said nothing after that, stunned into silence. When they were about to turn out of sight, Fumiko called, "Bye!"

…

"They were being pushy today, huh?" Fumiko mused, dropping another pile of sand on her sand sculpture.

Fumiko preferred to make sand castles and statues nearer to the main water source of Suna. The very center of the village was built around a small oasis, no longer green; but it still had a large pool of crystal-clear water that Fumiko knew ran miles deep. Around here, the sand was damp, and allowed for better sculpting material.

Gaara, on the other hand, liked being where the sand was dry enough to control.

So usually, they hung out at the exact spot where the water from the lake didn't seep into the sand any further- a dark little line between the wet sand and the dry sand. So the two of them sat, uncaring, really, of their clothes.

Fumiko hummed some song or another that she had heard being played on the way there, squishing the clay-like substance into a shape- she wasn't sure what she was even making, really, but it would turn out to be something. It always did.

Gaara was lazily flicking his fingers around, his other hand braced against the ground. His lips were pursed slightly in half-hearted concentration as the sand whirled into a castle that became more and more intricate as the seconds went by, even picking up small decorations like rocks and bits of cloth as it went.

He looked more relaxed then he had in a long time.

Fumiko added a line of tumbleweed bits to her growing Kazekage Tower, forming a Land of Wind symbol.

"Gaara, this is a long shot, but could you maybe find little people-dolls?"

The sand just in front of her knees churned, and three wooden voodoo-like dolls the size of her pinkie finger unearthed. She gaped at them for a minute, then looked over at Gaara. He was looking at his castle, but there was a slight smirk on his face.

"I was wondering when you'd ask. They were buried there the entire time, about a half mile down. Probably someone lost them in a sandstorm."

…

When they finally made their way back to Fumiko's house, it was already well past dark. The stars were out, and the moon illuminated their path, casting a silver shadow across the wide, sandy streets.

In the desert, when the sun went down, temperatures went to below freezing, so it was in their best interest to get inside soon before the sand cooled. Still, Fumiko goofed the entire time, clowning and jumping and laughing.

Being outside after that stuffy hospital room had worked wonders on both of them.

The two of them clambered up to the doorway as Fumiko chattered about trying out a new art style she'd thought of during the storm- blurring, she called it. Gaara had just raised his hand to grab the doorknob when it swung open.

A very sour-looking Yoshiki standing in the doorway. For a split second, Gaara was reminded of Fumiko's father, and that did not make him happy. Either way he blinked in surprise, lowering his hand to his side once more.

"… hello, Yoshiki." Gaara said.

"Yeah, hi." Yoshiki said peevishly. "Woulda liked to greet you earlier, when you actually got out of the hospital."

"Oh, sorry, Yoshiki." Fumiko said. "We were just out revisiting the village. It's been a while since we could hang out here, you know?"

"… yeah. Whatever." He stepped out of the way. "Your mom said she wanted to see you when you got back. She's in the kitchen. I'll entertain Gaara, or something."

"Okay!" she said, smiled at Gaara, and hobbled to the kitchen area of the apartment. Gaara stepped in after her, and Yoshiki closed the door behind him.

Gaara wanted to smile. The place hadn't changed at all in the month they'd been gone- if anything, it was warmer, since Mr. Mitsuwa's ever-looming presence was nowhere to be found. But Yoshiki was beside him, and well, they didn't seem to be on the best of terms. Gaara could sense his annoyingly, perpetually aggravated attitude.

Awkwardly, they both stood there beside each other. Yoshiki didn't look at him, and Gaara just watched the kitchen door for any sign of rescue. None came. Gaara wondered what they were doing for a moment, before he felt eyes boring into the back of his head.

He sighed. Him and Yoshiki didn't have the best relationship. Yoshiki didn't really like Gaara because… well… he knew it had something to do with Fumiko, but Gaara couldn't really figure it out. Gaara himself didn't particularly dislike Yoshiki, however…

"Hey. What were you guys doing, anyway?"

… he didn't particularly like him, either.

"Swings. Sand castles. Some window-shopping at the vendors' street." Gaara answered shortly, crossing his arms. He never really bothered to try and be social with him, and today wasn't any different.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes. Really."

Yoshiki sulked, muttering to himself under his breath. Someday, Gaara would figure out why Yoshiki seemed to hate his guts. But for now, he would settle for ignoring Yoshiki's not-so-quiet personal monologue.

…

"Mom! You bought tongue and gizzard? But you hate that recipe!"

"Well, I didn't just get beat up by Naruto, now did I?" Fumiko's mother smiled.

During their long hospital visit, Gaara and Fumiko had eventually agreed to tell her family bits and pieces of the story. Mai at first had laughed at them for getting creamed, then sobered when Fumiko quietly told her- with Gaara's permission- how exactly she had ended up in such a bad condition.

Fumiko hugged her mother tightly. "Thank you! Oh, this is perfect! His favorite food!"

Her mother laughed. "Ssh, not so loud; Gaara will hear you."

Fumiko wasn't exactly sure how in the world Gaara had discovered salted tongue and gizzards as a candidate for his favorite food, but somewhere along the line, he had. It wasn't often she made it- after all she rarely made anything that didn't have sugar somewhere in the ingredients list- but she knew how.

She pulled away, heading directly for the counter. Her mother had already cut and somewhat prepared the meats, but had never actually learned how to make it.

Fumiko pulled the salt and pepper from the cupboards above her, coating the gizzards, humming under her breath as she transferred them to a pot.

"Hey, mom," she said absently as she measured out olive oil into the high-sided, heavy-bottomed black pot that they owned specifically for this purpose along with the meat. "Would you go check on Gaara? This'll take awhile, and I think Yoshiki makes Gaara uncomfortable."

"Sure, sweetie."

The sound of the door opening and closing alerted her to her mother's absence. The tiny kitchen filled with the sounds of popping oil as the pot heated up. She opened a small can of chicken broth and added that as well, along with fresh-smelling herbs from the fridge.

"Um… wine, or vinegar?" she mused to herself. Well, it would already be salted, so a sweet wine would probably be better. She rummaged through the pantry for a minute before closing her fingers around a bottle she was surprised they had.

After covering the pot and leaving it to simmer, she set a timer for two hours, and then pulled a glass marination pan from a bottom cupboard.

Searching through the fridge and the pantry, Fumiko realized that her mother had really gone all out. There was the cloves, the cinnamon, the bay leaf, and the white wine vinegar, expensive things they didn't usually buy.

Fumiko took the soaking cow's tongue out of the pot. She grimaced slightly as she held it- cow's tongue felt really really weird- and put it on the cutting board for just long enough to put fresh water in the pot.

Her mother must have been soaking it for days before they were released from the hospital. She must have been really worried to do this for Gaara.

She plopped the tongue back in and set to work chopping vegetables. As she chopped, her mind wandered to the absolute silence outside the kitchen. This was good, because it meant that Gaara and Yoshiki weren't fighting, but she had to wonder…

…

Gaara could hear pots clanging around in the kitchen- Fumiko was almost never subtle unless she was trying to be quiet, which she obviously wasn't. He was unbearably curious, but Fumiko's mother was proving to be very distracting.

"And this was Gaara and Fumiko when they were really little. Fumiko fell asleep on him! See, there's his little bear-"

"Mrs. Mitsuwa!" Gaara protested, trying to snatch the photo book out of her hands. He hadn't even been aware that she had one.

Yoshiki just looked confused, inching away, but at the same time, discreetly sneaking peeks. Mrs. Mitsuwa kept it just out of his reach, and he was unwilling to use sand on any of the Mitsuwas unless it was to protect or aid.

A half hour later, Gaara could feel a migraine growing behind his eyes. Mrs. Mitsuwa was still on it, but Gaara was so tired of jumping up and down- he absolutely loathed being short- reaching for something that he obviously wasn't going to get.

Now he was sitting on the futon. The clanging sounds, he realized, had faded. Now it was almost completely quiet save for the occasional rustling. Now Gaara was getting suspicious- what in the world was Fumiko doing, anyway?

Fumiko stepped out of the kitchen almost an hour later, face dusted with cinnamon and pepper, smiling widely. As soon as the door slid open, Gaara froze.

That smell… Gaara knew that smell.

"You didn't!" Gaara blurted in an uncharacteristic bout of normalcy, turning to stare with wide eyes at his friend. She tilted her head, smiled at him, apron stained with broth and vegetable juice, smelling like tongue and gizzard.

Which, despite how odd it sounded, was a compliment.

…

"I can't believe you even remember how to make this, Fumiko," Gaara said between bites of salted tongue. "It's been, what, three years?"

"Ah ah ah, Gaara, you know I never forget a recipe," Fumiko laughed.

She was piling enough sugar on her food to give a rabbit cardiac arrest, but Gaara was amazed she was eating it at all- it was probably one of her least favorite dishes.

"This food is weird," Mai commented, poking at a gizzard with her fork. "Why's it look so weird?"

"Stop playing with your food, Mai," her mother said, although there was no real displeasure in her voice. She, too, seemed uncertain of her plate, staring at it.

"But it's odd. Why would you eat a cow's tongue?"

Gaara knew how to fix the problem. A really cheap trick, but one she had fallen for multiple times during their training together.

"Hey, Mai," he rumbled.

"What?"

"I bet you can't eat more gizzard than me."

…

Fumiko swept her hand across the canvas, spreading a cloud of black across jagged lines. It looked vaguely familiar, but Gaara couldn't quite place it. Her mouth was open slightly, concentrating.

Gaara himself was stretched out on her bed. Fumiko's mother had eventually gotten over the 'sleep on separate beds' thing- mostly because they always stayed on the same bed despite the rules and anyway, Gaara never really slept. The comforter was a warm, soft, worn out multicolored quilt made by Fumiko's great-great-somebody. The dark stain on the corner of it reminded him of early stayovers.

Her room was just as decorated if not more so than his room. Her walls were crammed with framed pictures and paintings and pencil drawings, and there were more stacked in her closet and in a box at the foot of her bed. A coat rack made from random bits of scrap wood stood precariously by her door, holding Fumiko's cloak. There was one dresser with a mirror, on which a photo of the two of them at his Academy graduation stood.

Gaara felt wired. His chakra was completely replenished, and almost two weeks of straight, undisturbed sleep had left him with energy to spare. He had no doubt that Fumiko felt the same way, given the way she practically skipped rather than walking, and the twitch in her fingers as she worked.

"See?" Fumiko stepped back to get a better look at what she had sketched out. Her hands were blackened with charcoal. "The blurring is strange, but it makes it look… softer somehow."

"What is it?"

"The woods in Konoha. What it would look like… without us fighting in it." Fumiko stopped abruptly, then her mouth dropped open. "Holy sweeting sugar! I totally forgot! Their forest was partially destroyed! Oh, jeez, I have more letters to write!"

Fumiko sputtered around the room for a moment looking for paper, peeking under the bed, in her dresser, and in her closet before realizing that Asuka hadn't yet returned from sending her letter to Lee. Then she shrugged and went back to her canvas.

A few quiet moments passed. Gaara closed his eyes, just listening to the sound of charcoal scratching across paper.

"Hey Gaara. Do you want to try?"

...

"Oh, yeah." Fumiko said with a wide smile. "Yeah, that feels way better. I didn't even realize the other one was getting too small!"

She rotated her knee, testing the strength of her newly replenished chakra sock and the weight of her new prosthetic. It was virtually the same as her previous one, but she preferred this design, so it was recreated in a larger size. Gaara had to wonder what she would try to draw on it first.

Fumiko stood. The doctor, although Gaara had known him since he was seven, and had always come to him for Fumiko's prosthetic help, was trying to keep Fumiko between them. Like he thought Gaara was going to just go nuts and attack him. Gaara, having been adjusting to this behavior for the past week, more or less felt the same about it as he had when he'd first left: confused by it, annoyed by it, but otherwise indifferent.

Gaara nodded at him, attempting to acknowledge his help, but it only made the poor man flinch. Most likely he thought Gaara was controlling the sand from the gourd he now wore on his back again. Those loathing eyes... terrified and yet, angry.

Fumiko trotted over. She was uncaring of these looks- she recognized them but discarded them. Easily, like she was brushing sand off her shoulder. He wanted to be able to do that. No... he wanted to not have to be able to do that.

Gaara held out his arm slightly- Fumiko usually had a little bit of trouble the day or two after she was fitted with a new prosthetic. Until she got used to it, ordinarily, she would use Gaara almost like a crutch. Smiling, she took his arm, and they stepped out of the room,. Gaara closed it behind him.

He pretended not to hear the relieved sigh as he did so.

...

"Why do all of the sandals look the same?" Fumiko pouted. "Different straps maybe, but they're all the same!"

"The shinobi here are all very stoic and simple." Gaara cocked his head slightly. "If it blends into the desert, they'll take it."

"I don't wanna blend into the desert." she sighed. "Oh well. A bigger size of the same shoe it is."

Fumiko, under the excuse that if her prosthetic was getting too big, then her sandal was, too; had decided to shop for more interesting ones. But unless she wanted to wear the high-strapping black fashion-sandals they had seen in the women's section, then she was stuck with shinobi sandals: plain, a little high, and the same color as the sand they walked on.

It was always interesting when Fumiko shopped for a sandal. Key word being, a sandal.

Fumiko picked up the pair of sandals from the low shelf and then straightened, bracing herself on Gaara's shoulder as they made their way back to the front of the little clothes-shop. Although the Mitsuwa family often couldn't afford much, Gaara always made certain that she could buy things like new sandals without having to worry about expenses.

Stepping up to the counter, Gaara could feel the cashier tense.

"Hello, welcome," she said in a rehearsed tone. "How may I help you?"

"Well, I'd say that I'm here to buy a sandal, only most stores require I get both of them." Fumiko laughed. "So I guess I'm buying these sandals, please."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some visual references of my OC's on my DeviantArt, at Geraniumpickle.


	26. Priceless

Gaara stared at the shirt in his hands. For weeks he had been denying it; that his shirt felt a little bit tighter, his pants a little shorter, that perhaps he was outgrowing his identity.

It was ridiculous. Gaara knew with absolute certainty that it wasn't normal to be nearly afraid of buying new clothes. But it felt too close to shedding his façade, the way he couldn't scowl at Kankuro anymore without his older brother smiling at him like they shared some kind of inside joke; or glare at Temari without her eyes going soft.

It had shaken him. Like he wasn't Gaara anymore. Gaara had always been coupled with monster or sand-freak or stupid unless it involved Fumiko, but no matter what, insults had always overshadowed his name. Now Gaara just meant Gaara, and with that he lost the frightening aura that came with the angry shouts. His dark clothes, chosen for the purpose of scaring off eminent problems, no longer quite fit.

It was... unsettling.

Expressing this to Fumiko, he realized she understood his scrambled thoughts.

"It's the symbolism," she explained. "Like an art piece. An artist can make people feel however they want them to, depending on how they color and present the display and image. Now your colors are all wrong for the scene and you know something's not quite right, but you like the pallet you used and don't want to fix it."

"Like art." he said dubiously.

"Yeah," she said thoughtfully, tilting her head and examining the fabric in his arms. "Now you need to figure out which element needs fixing. The colors, the images, or just the atmosphere you want to exhibit."

"Are you trying to say I need new clothes?"

She shook her head, laughing. "No. Well, yes, but no. What I'm saying is you need to figure yourself out before you change anything."

Gaara's hands fisted the cloth. "And how do I do that?"

"I learned a thing or two while I was in Konoha." she said, smiling brightly. "I once knew a person who figured his junk out by zoning out. Kind of like meditation... but more aware." Fumiko tugged at his arm. "C'mon. Put that thing down- we're going outside."

...

Nara Shikamaru. Probably the world's laziest ninja to ever exist.

But, Fumiko had to admit as she stared up at the blue, blue sky, eyes flickering from wisp to wisp. Her vision was blurred, easing her mind into a semi-aware state not unlike her flashes of inspiration. Fumiko had once spent three days sprinting around her room, practically throwing paint and glitter across the room in a frenzy until she finally ran out of steam. She'd barely remembered any of it.

Beside her, Gaara's breathing had slowed.

The two of them were lying side by side in the sand at the outskirts of the village, half-sunk into the deep, nearly steaming sand. At first it had kind of burned, but now it was more like a thermal blanket. Fumiko's hands rested on her stomach, Gaara's on either side of him. In her mind, thoughts fluttered past her minds eye at a slow, uninterrupted pace.

Gaara didn't know what to do, that was for sure. First, only Fumiko had accepted him. Second, a lot of people in Konoha had very nearly adored him, third, he was back to being spat at. And now, all of a sudden, things were changing- slowly. Very slowly, as Temari and Kankuro came around, it became harder and harder for Gaara to hide. He was unsure of his mask and thus, it no longer covered his face. Now, others were starting to notice the difference.

Her art analogies may not have helped much, but she at the time she hadn't been able to think of anything else.

Fumiko looked to the side. The sand hissed beneath her hair. Gaara's eyes were glazed, unreadable, his expression contemplative.

After a moment she shifted her gaze back to the sky. It really was very pretty, but for once, she didn't feel the urge to paint it or draw it or otherwise capture it. She just wanted to look up at the shifting blue atmosphere, shimmering with heat. In the corner of her eye the sun tried to blind her. Hours seemed to pass like this. Eventually, her skin began to warm, but she didn't particularly care.

"I have a question." Gaara said suddenly. Fumiko jolted.

"Ne?"

"Why do you think Naruto is so confident?"

"Huh? Uzumaki Naruto?" Fumiko paused to think. She didn't question his query- sometimes, something totally unrelated could make a situation click into place. But aside from a month of barely any contact, she didn't really know Uzumaki Naruto very well. "It doesn't matter to him what other people think. I think it's just a knee-jerk reaction to... something." She smiled. "Actually... he's a lot like you. Just, the opposite."

Silence ensued for another stretch of sun-filled, heat-fixed pause.

"I think... I want to go to the store now."

...

"This. Or this? Maybe this." Fumiko paused, mid-flick. "Actually... what do you want anyway, Gaara?"

"I'm not sure." he said quietly. Gaara looked very uncomfortable in the middle of the clothing store, clutching his arms to his chest in a desperate attempt to maintain his stereotypical crossed arms. "Something... not as dark." His lips pursed. "But not so bright. Does that make any sense?"

Fumiko nodded, biting her lip. "Red."

"H-huh?"

"Something red. Maroon, maybe?"

Fumiko thumbed through the racks of clothes. Pulling some out every once in a while and comparing them, discerning color pallets, trying to make a comfortably dark, approachable mix. Gaara tried to help, but his usual answer to nearly everything was either, "okay" or "whatever you think is best."

Finally, Fumiko stopped, cart full of narrowed down shirts, pants, and long multi-use scarves.

"Alright. Look. This is a you thing." She said gently. "You need to know what you want, okay?"

"What about you?"

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Fumiko grinned. "No, I'm still comfortable with my style."

"Mph..."

Fumiko put a hand on his shoulder. "Gaara. You got this. Two things- they're just clothes. We can get more. And two- you picked your last style, didn't you? Just remember how you did it, and do it again."

"You make that sound easy."

"Silly, that's 'cause it is!" Fumiko tugged at her walnut charm. "I'm gonna go back to your house, okay? I'll be there when you get back."

"What!" Gaara looked alarmed. "Why?"

Sticky question. Fumiko couldn't directly tell him that she had been working on a new, slightly bigger gourd for him to use in battle, because the whole point was for it to be a surprise. But at the same time, had they not just a month and a half ago worked through a lie-induced knot in their relationship large enough to make Fumiko doubt? So she improvised.

"I'm... working!" she blurted. "On a project."

Gaara's confusion showed. He looked strangely his age, with his wide eyes and a scarf wrapped around his right arm. "You have to work on it right now?"

Yes, now, she wanted to say. The fact that Gaara had chosen now to get a new 'art style' while she was practically hours away from finishing her secret project, made her itchy to finish it in time to compliment his choices. Mai was helping- recently learned fire style jutsus allowed her to assist in detail-baking. Unfortunately, she hadn't picked up any of Fumiko's artistic abilities at all, so detail-baking was all she could help with.

"Yeah, sorry." she smiled apologetically. "See you later!"

...

What Gaara had decided on was exactly what he had asked for. Not quite as dark or off-putting as his previous attire, but it was brighter somehow, more confident, easier to look at.

His long-sleeved shirt was dark red, almost maroon but not quite, with long capris to match. A long white scarf snaked over his shoulder and around one hip, almost like the strap of a quiver. It wound across his gourd and hung from where it was pressed tight under his gourd-strap, hanging down past his knees. His clothes were looser than before, less rigid-looking.

He was easy in it, like a new skin.

"Wow, Gaara." Fumiko said, pleased. "You got it."

"Why are you covered in sand?" he asked quizzically. "Your project?"

Fumiko snapped her fingers, then reached out to grab his wrist. "Right! Come with me!" she hummed, tugging him along. Behind her, Gaara spluttered in protest, but allowed himself to be pulled forward. Fumiko couldn't really pull anyone who didn't want to be pulled, and even now she was slipping forward, struggling to move forward without falling straight on her face.

"What- what- what?" he yelped, stumbling a little to keep up.

"Come on- come on- come on!" she mimicked, then burst out laughing. "To your room!"

When they climbed the steps to the tenant's hallway and counted the doors- one, two, three, four from the top of the steps- to his room, she stopped, turning to Gaara. He finally ground to a stop, nearly passing her in his attempt to move fast enough to prevent yanking her backwards on accident.

Fumiko sidestepped behind him and reached up on her toes to cover his eyes with her hands.

"Ah." Gaara muttered. "Fumiko, what are you doing?"

"It's a surprise!" she sang. "You got taller since the last time I surprised you. Why won't I grow?"

"Fumiko, what are you doing?" he repeated. His tone was a mix between amused and perplexed, and she could feel his eyes shifting under her palms as he tried to blink, but he didn't move to pull her hands off. His arms hung by his sides.

"Oh, wait a minute. Can you open the door?"

Obediently, Gaara reached out a careful hand, sliding it across the door until he found the notch and slid it open. "By now I should expect things like this when you come to my house without me. Why don't I ever expect it?"

"Because you like to pretend people can't surprise you," she said matter-of-factly. "So with me you stop looking for it. But. Come on, Gaara. Forward!"

He made a small disgruntled sound but did as she said. Fumiko was more likely to fall than Gaara- she couldn't really see. But she knew his room just as well as she knew her own, so she knew exactly where to stop. When her footstep halted, so did Gaara.

"Ready?"

"Sure."

"Ah, boo!" she chided good-naturedly. "Ready?"

"Su-" he started, then stopped. "I mean... of course!"

Fumiko giggled and moved her hands. Gaara took a moment to blink his vision back.

In front of them- carefully adjusted a million times so it didn't fall, propped up with pillows and one strategically placed, too-small sandal- stood a larger version of the gourd he now wore on his back, smooth and hard and ready to use.

The bottom was flatter than his old one, better suited for his as of late recent crash landings because it held more sand in the center to dissolve. It was larger as a whole, yes, but specifically, Fumiko had made the round spheres of it hollower, shell thinner at the edges and thicker at the top and bottom of the circles for maximum volume. With that particular design, he would be able to hold a little less then a half of his previous sand reserve more.

It would take him a while to infuse enough sand with chakra to fill it. But, Fumiko knew, that would make him feel better. His old gourd, in his mind, hadn't been enough to stop him getting thrashed on more than one occasion. Because of speed and pure strength, Fumiko also knew that technically, more sand wouldn't have protected him, but the thought still remained.

Gaara said nothing, eyes widened with unspoken surprise.

"Fumiko-"

"It should still fall apart when you will it to," she said. "It's made almost entirely out of sand, minus the paint, you know? I just thought it would help with stuff."

"I..."

She stepped forward, pointing. "I added a loop on the back for your strap to hook into. It's made of leather and it's pretty small, so once you thread your gourd strap in it should stay on tight."

"How long have you been working on this?"

"Huck... maybe a week? Mai helped fire it, and put a little chakra in to make sure it holds together."

"Little Mai?" Gaara questioned. "She helped?"

"Go to hell." a cheerful, rough voice said from behind the door where Mai was hiding. "And while you're there, come up with something else to call me, shorty."

...

Fumiko ran a dish under the steady stream of lukewarm water pouring out of the faucet. Bits of eggs and spots of syrup drained into the sink as she scrubbed at it. "No, seriously. I don't need to be there."

"But I can't do this yet." Gaara protested.

"Gaara. Relax." Fumiko laughed. "You've trained with Kankuro and Temari before. Besides, you need to get used to having more sand as a strategy so's you don't bumble it all like you did last week."

Gaara frowned. "It was not my fault that your bedroom window exploded."

"Yes, it was," she said cheerfully. "You just forgot to control the extra stuff directly and it flew out of the stream."

"I said I was sorry."

"And I said I didn't mind. Go on, Gaara."

"Why can't you come with me?"

"I could. I just think it would be better if I didn't." she said, drying her hands on a dishcloth. "And anyway, my mom enlisted my help to make dinner for her and her doctor buddies later tonight." She patted his arm. "You, Kankuro, and Temari need to clear the air. It'd just be awkward if I was there."

"For them, maybe." Gaara looked distressed. "It'll be awkward just for me going!"

"Look. They invited you training; you should go. They're just confused, Gaara. About the whole deal with the Chuunin exams."

"I cannot believe I apologized." he murmured. "I was delirious."

"But you meant it." Fumiko smiled and shook her finger. "I thought you said you wanted to try and make a new start with the village."

"I do." His eyes squinted a little. "But... do I have to do it right now?"

Fumiko swatted at his head with her towel, laughing when he ducked and brought a hand up to block. She shooed him out of the kitchen and to the door, pushing his back until he slid unwillingly out of Fumiko's house. "Out. Out." she sang. "Go on- shoo. Leave me to my woes."

Gaara's expression was not at all pleased, but after a short stare-off, he finally sighed and turned to leave. He looked so dejected, with his hands in his pockets instead of crossed, trudging theatrically down the road, that Fumiko smiled.

"And have fun!" she called after him, waving.

Fumiko watched until he vanished like a mirage into the hot, wavy Suna air. Then she puffed out a breath, ruffling her bangs. Fumiko tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and went back inside to start working on her Sukiyaki dish for tonight's impress-your-mother's-boss-by-letting-her-pretend-she-made-dinner-so-she-can-finally-get-that-promotion-supper.

...

"Hmm-hm-hm," Fumiko hummed, stabbing a slice of meat with her fork and turning it over on the pan. The sound of popping grease and fat filled the tiny kitchen as she seared the beef strips, as well as the savory aroma of cooking meat. She put the fork down on the counter and wiped her forehead. Working directly with a high flame was a pretty hot job.

A few minutes later, the beef was turning darker. Fumiko added sugar, soy sauce, and sake- she was a little heavy-handed on the sake since she'd heard her mother's boss liked his fair share of alcohol- and did her best to prepare everything to it's preferred best. She set about chopping the shitake mushrooms and tofu.

Fumiko wondered how Gaara's training was going. It had been- she checked the hourglass shaped clock on the wall- about a half an hour since he had left, and since he hadn't yet returned, she had to assume everything was going smoothly. Temari and Kankuro had asked her to convince Gaara to accept their offer. They wanted to figure out what he had apologized about, why he was avoiding them, and above all, they wanted to make up for all the years of fearful hatred.

Gaara had taken to muttering about how nobody was apologizing to her, despite the fact that she had been considered just as much of a virus as Gaara by the general community, but still, his attitude toward people in general was beginning to improve. Uzumaki Naruto really had opened his eyes to something- that regular people could become friends just as good as she was, that nobody was perfect, and that everyone could try.

Fumiko paused in her cutting, staring down at the mushroom heads on the chopping board. The knife handle was cold in her hand. She put it down, plagued by unexpected, out of place tears. They slid down her face in two perfect lines, dripping from her chin.

They were happy tears, of course. Fumiko didn't know why, but lately she had been prone to joy tears at the thought of Uzumaki Naruto. She wiped them away absently, shaking her head, and picked up the blade again, smiling.

All of a sudden, something behind her squawked. Fumiko jumped a mile, scattering her heads.

"Asuka! You scared me to death!" Fumiko breathed, turning around. The bird flapped around on the table, dragging the little cloth purse gripped in her talons across the wood. Fumiko grinned. "Oh! A letter for me? So Lee finally responded!"

Asuka had returned empty-clawed so many times that Fumiko had begun to believe that either Lee hated her, or all her letters were being blocked by Leaf shinobi. Fumiko honestly couldn't blame them if they did- after all, their Hokage had died as a result of Baki's mistake. Suna itself was still in a slump, unable to put itself back on the tracks without the Fourth Kazekage's guidance.

Excitedly, Fumiko unwrapped the cord from Asuka's foot and fumbled open the flap. The curled scroll inside fell open a little as the bag loosened; it hadn't been tied or sealed shut. She pulled it out and opened it, spreading the letter out on the table to flatten it out. Asuka clacked closer, peering over her wrist like was was reading it.

Dear Fumiko-chan, it read.

I am sorry I did not respond earlier. Ten Ten did not like the idea of writing you back. But I think it would be rude not to answer all of your queries. Konoha is in mourning. The loss of our Hokage was a big one, and the shadow looms over every face. But the Leaf shinobi are strong. Our youth is returning.

Fumiko smiled.

I believe that you did not know about the invasion. I talked to Naruto and he agrees with me. You do not strike me as a malevolent type. Although I would suggest your friends' sensei not to come into our hidden village for a long time. I heard about your Kazekage. I am deeply sorry for your loss. And I still do not blame Gaara for my injuries- in fact...

Her eyes widened.

...

It was better than he had expected.

Training was intense now that his siblings weren't afraid for their lives. He was constantly battered on all sides by puppets and wind and poison blades. Not that any of them could hit him, but it was still a challenge to consciously try and block the attacks before his sand could, whipping his sand around like an extension of his arms.

He skidded back, then lunged forward.

They hadn't insisted on talking to him. Instead, they just attacked him. The three of them had screamed at each other, blowing their frustrations to a terrifying level. Actually, for a while, Gaara could have sworn they had all been trying to kill each other.

Kankuro was angry with Gaara for acting like a brat and a sadist. Temari was pissed that he had never approached her with his loneliness. He was angry at both of them for a multitude of reasons. His siblings were even frustrated with each other for not noticing.

Gaara himself found himself revealing things he'd promised himself nobody but Fumiko would know about, like Yashamaru's betrayal and their mother's hatred and their father's assassination attempts; the times Fumiko had nearly been murdered and nobody offered a helping hand. The times his siblings had turned their backs on him, huffing, sneering, fearing him.

Gaara had gone red in the face yelling his lungs out, as had they. But Gaara had so, so many more things to say than they did, and they let him say it, frantically avoiding his crushing, swirling attacks. His tears had long since dried, and now, the fighting was peaceful.

"Here I come!" Temari grunted, swinging her fan. Gaara, expecting an attack, lifted his hand and raised the sand.

Apparently, Kankuro hadn't expected anything at all.

To Gaara's shock and endless amusement, Kankuro was blown off the ground with a yelp. In the confusion, Kankuro lost control of his chakra strings, and both his puppets collapsed to the ground with a clacking clatter.

"Temari!" he whined, out of breath as he struggled up to his hands and knees. "What the hell, I thought we were teaming up!"

Temari looked at Gaara. Gaara locked eyes with her.

She grinned. Gaara himself felt a small, mischievous smirk tug the corners of his lips.

They both turned to face the downed puppeteer, who yelped and tried to scurry backwards like a crab. Gaara raised his sand above his head at the same time that Temari hefted her fan, all three moons showing. Kankuro blanched.

"Gaara! Gaara! Gaaragaaragaaara!" a familiar voice cried.

Gaara paused, looking in the direction of the voice. Temari lowered her fan, curiously glancing over as well. Kankuro sighed with relief.

Fumiko was running like a mad woman, half-dragging as her prosthetic skidded in the sand. Above her head, she was frantically waving some sort of letter, and she was wearing the most ridiculously big smile Gaara had ever seen.

"What's she doing here?" Temari wondered aloud.

"Didn't you say she was cooking something?" Kankuro gasped, hoisting himself back up.

"I'm not sure," Gaara said uncertainly, waiting for Fumiko to reach them. When she did, she was gasping like a fish out of water and stumbling. Gaara realized she must have run all the way to the training grounds from her house. She took a second to double over and catch her breath. Gaara hovered by her shoulder worriedly.

"You... are not... going to believe this." she wheezed.

"Believe what? Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?"

She waved him off, then held out the paper. "No, no. Read this."

"Fumiko-"

"Hurry up and read it!"

Gaara took the paper from her flailing hand. Ignoring the confused stares of his siblings, he skimmed over the words.

Then he froze.

"I..."

"No... lasting damage," Fumiko said. She was almost crouched with her hands on her knees, breathing hard, but she was looking up at him, eyes sparkling. "Tsunade performed a last-minute surgery. Gaara, Lee's gonna be just fine!"

...

Fumiko tossed up a piece of smoked jerky. Screeching like a banshee, Asuka dove from the sky, grasping it in her talons.

Gaara sat quietly on the ground a few feet away, watching Asuka dance and loop through the sky.

Fumiko threw another chunk of meat, putting her entire strength into the launch. The bird seemed to flash through the sky, sun glinting off her feathers as she dove to catch it. Asuka veered off to the right to avoid a collision, Fumiko putting her arms up to cover her face, hair whipping as Asuka pumped her wings inches from her head.

"Yeah!" she cheered.

"Asuka's getting pretty good at that." Gaara observed. "You said she was going to be used for espionage missions?"

"Baki requested it. Said her dark colors would help her blend into the sky, that she could grab up papers and scrolls quickly and without raising any alarms. I told him I'd think about it, but Asuka seems to love this."

"She has to be able to do it in the dark." Gaara reminded her.

Fumiko's smile was bright, eyes almost closing as they crinkled at the corners. "Working on it."

...

"Augh!" Mai yelled. The pencil in her hand snapped. "This sucks!"

"Mai, you're really close," Fumiko said reassuringly, glancing over her essay. "Except... um, elemental jutsus aren't because of different types of chakra. It's what your soul and body is most compatible with-"

"The hell do they want me to do this for, anyway?!" she seethed, shoving herself back from the desk. Gaara winced as the chair screeched across the floor. "Writing an essay about jutsus? Jutsus aren't that scientific! You don't have to explain it, you just have to do them; it's not that hard for crying out loud!"

"There is a science to them," Fumiko tried.

"Pssh! Aw, Toyotomi-sensei is just pissed that I keep skipping class. What's the big deal, anyway? I can do everything easy, and still not know what's on a stupid written test!"

"You really should go to class..."

"Fumikooo." Mai whined. "School is such a freaking drag."

Fumiko started. Then she cracked a smile. "You sound just like a ninja I met at the Chuunin exams."

...

"I improved the paint formula." Fumiko told him as she painted over his scar. "It should stay on even longer now- three, four weeks at the least."

"That's good." Gaara said absently.

"I used a new type of leaf extract. Chiyo didn't want them to let me have any, but I convinced them."

"That's great, Fumiko."

The brush didn't pause in its strokes. "Also, I forgot to tell you, Suna flooded today. We're both dead."

"I agree."

Fumiko sighed. "Are you bored or something?" she asked uncertainly, glancing at his eyes. "Sorry if I'm bothering you..."

"What? No." Gaara said, blinking as he came out of whatever reverie he had been stuck in. "No, I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"About... nothing."

Fumiko arched her brow. "Nothing."

"Nothing," he agreed.

Fumiko shook her head with a smile. Whatever it was, he would tell her eventually. Gaara was like that- until he was sure his thoughts didn't sound stupid and that they were actually relevant, he wouldn't share them. It took him longer than some to string his thoughts together into ideas.

"Hey, are you ever going to actually get a tattoo?"

"No." he said shortly.

"Why not?"

He stared at her, blue eyes clear and undisturbed. "Because this feels good."

...

"I'm sorry?" Fumiko asked quietly, not quite sure she believed her ears.

Fumiko had qualified for an art show, submitting some of her works on a whim. She hadn't expected all of them to be accepted, and she certainly hadn't read far enough into the flyer to realize that this was a prestigious art presentation for artists from all over the land of wind. People were here all the way from the Land of Iron, for Kami's sake, to scout out paintings and observe the talent of a young generation.

"I said I would like to buy your painting." the man said.

"I heard that part. But... could you repeat that number, please?" she said in a squeak.

He raised his eyebrow. "I asked if you would sell your painting for seven hundred thousand ryo. What did you call this piece, again? 'Green sunshine.' A very original piece! And so effortlessly handled as well! You have a natural talent for soft lighting."

Fumiko was stunned.

The painting in question, Green sunshine, was a recollection of the quiet, filtered sunlight through the leaves of Konoha, shining through a swirl of leaves blown by a wind's fancy. It had been during the Chuunin exams that she'd seen it, and about a week ago that she'd decided to paint it.

Her mind was shot. Seven hundred thousand ryo?

"Th..." She couldn't even spit the words out. 'Thank you' didn't seem quite adequate at the moment.

"So, will you sell?" When she didn't respond, he sighed. "I should've known. A person of your abilities would certainly know when you're being cheated. I can raise the price to-"

"No!" she yelped, then flushed. "Uh, I mean... seven hundred thousand ryo sounds fair. I, uh... don't think this is one of my better pieces."

"How old are you, again?" he asked.

"I'll be thirteen next week." she said weakly.

The man shook his head as he counted out the money. "Very good! So young, yet so inspired! Mitsuwa Fumiko, you'll be a prodigy yet."

"Y-yeah. Thank you."

When he left, painting in hand, Fumiko only stared. That was how Gaara found her five minutes later, having left to find drinks for the two of them. He paused at her blank expression, moving to stand in front of her.

...

"Are you alright?" he asked. Fumiko's eyes were wide, her expression slack, which was odd, given that she wasn't really ever taken by surprise. Then he glanced up to the makeshift bamboo wall the festival officials had provided for displays and noticed the empty space above her head. "Hey. What happened to that green light painting?"

"I sold it." she said distantly.

"That's great! ...What're you staring at?"

She mumbled something Gaara couldn't quite catch.

"What?"

"He paid seventy thousand ryo."

"What?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Calculating Naruto-Yen-Currency sucks.
> 
> Italicizing still not up. When I figure it out, I guess I'll go back through everything and fix the italics.


	27. Bone-Man, Kaguya-Bone

Without Gaara, Suna was incredibly and mind-numbingly boring.

Nobody could keep her entertained for very long. Yoshiki was busy on some mission or another as a graduated Suna Genin. It was only a D-rank, but he couldn't keep her occupied while he was playing courier ninja, bussing scrolls and weapons across the village. It was amazing that he didn't collapse from heat exhaustion. So Fumiko moved on.

Her sister was at the Academy, probably either getting a detention, practicing a jutsu, or sleeping, depending on what they were doing that day. Her mother was at work, and, well, Fumiko usually didn't try to hang out with her dad all that much. She loved him, of course she loved him, but just because you love someone doesn't mean you willingly take abuse from them, be it physical or verbal.

She was having one of her biggest artist's blocks ever, and she's already spent the last four days baking the moisture out of her skin- her mother insisted that she stop when there was no longer any surface in the house not covered with some sort of pastry or cake- and now she had absolutely nothing to do but wander around.

Why hadn't she sought out Gaara, you ask, or perhaps one of the other Sand Siblings?

They were on a mission.

Near Konoha.

Fumiko knew it was a B-rank, but she wasn't particularly worried. Unless it was Lee, she was pretty sure there was no one out there- none that he'd encounter, anyway- that could hurt him. Even if Temari and Kankuro weren't powerful and dangerous, their newfound relationship with Gaara pretty much guaranteed their safety as well.

But Gaara had been gone what seemed like forever. Swinging alone, building sand castles alone, roaming the halls of the kazekage tower and the streets of Suna alone- it was, to say in the most simple of terms, lonely.

Now she was sitting on the top of Suna's great walls, legs hanging off the edge with her elbows on her knees. Her head rested in her hands, and she had been staring, unflinchingly, at the space where the desert and the sky met to look like the end of the world.

Come back. Come back. Hurry up.

Usually, Fumiko was a very patient person. But usually, Fumiko and her hyper disposition didn't have to go four days with virtually no one to talk to- unless she wanted to talk to some of the civilians or other ninja her age. And although Gaara had made progress in trying to be less scary, and they had made a lot of progress in realizing he wasn't- scary, that is- they were still distinctly off-put by her prosthetic and were nervous of offending her while Gaara wasn't around.

At least they didn't push her down anymore.

Fumiko sighed, a dramatic, long-winded sigh, staring out at the shimmering heat with growing disinterest. No figures emerged over the dunes.

That's it, she decided, and heaved herself up. I'm gonna go play with Asuka.

Asuka had been officially named a messenger hawk for Suna, used mainly for espionage and secret messages. But she could also be used for high-speed deliverance to other villages, so usually, she either was in the aviary at the kazekage tower or buzzing about the village. Asuka seemed to love her new job, but she still came to Fumiko's room occasionally, and delivered her messages for her.

Carefully, Fumiko made her way back down the walls. There was a small staircase carved into the soft sandstone wall, but it was small, tight and narrow, made more for shinobi in a hurry and less for a cripple girl who needed handholds to walk down a tilt in the sidewalk. The wall was high, so it was tedious work, not making a mistake.

A mistake from this height could mean death. But Fumiko wasn't particularly worried about that; she had never fallen before, and bitter thoughts full of darkness like that tended to ping off her filters and move straight along without bothering her.

"Fumiko!" a voice panted from below when she was close to the bottom. Peering carefully down, she spotted a sweaty, tired-looking Yoshiki waving up at her. "I thought I'd find you here! Where are you headed now?"

"To see Asuka. And to see if I got any letters."

"In the past two hours? Fumiko, Asuka isn't that fast."

"Pfft. You underestimate my bird."

"Can I at least walk you there?" he offered. "My mission is done. I have to head to the tower anyway to turn in my mission report."

"Okay!"

They walked together for a while, Fumiko chattering about useless things that she enjoyed; the heat, the view, the cool-looking bug perched on Yoshiki's shoulder. He swatted it away. Yoshiki was a little too winded to keep up a conversation, so eventually, they just fell into a comfortable silence.

When they reached the tower, Fumiko climbed the steps with Yoshiki and pushed open the door to the aviary like she always did, stepped in and breathed out like she always did, taking in the scent of birds and feathers and scroll parchment.

"Fumiko?" the retired courier nin that usually watched over the birds asked. "Ah, it is you."

"Hello, Natsuo."

"Say, why don't you ever say 'Natsuo-san'?"

Fumiko shrugged and smiled. "I just don't think honorifics are necessary. I mean, why respect one person and call another a boy?" Fumiko laughed and shook her head. "Anyway, I was wondering where Asuka was."

"Ah, sorry, hon." she smiled apologetically. "She's been gone for a day or two."

"What! Why?"

"She was sent out to the village hidden in the leaves. We're negotiating a peace treaty again, you know."

A bird landed on Fumiko's head. Laughing she reached up to pet it. "That's great! When will she be back?"

Yoshiki looked a little uncomfortable. He was unused to people being okay with her presence now, having been accustomed to standing by as people glared at the both of them. That he came with her at all under fear of hatred made Fumiko want to smile. Yoshiki had his days.

"I need to go submit my report." he said awkwardly.

"Go ahead," Fumiko said, waving her hand with a grin. "I'll be here for a minute."

He departed quickly, still panting and sweating and slouching. Fumiko couldn't imagine running around delivering messages all day- but maybe that was just because of her special predicament. Yoshiki didn't seem to much like it either, however. The door shut. The bird on her head startled at the sound and flew off, and from the prickling on her scalp, it was safe to assume it took a few of her hairs with it.

"Hm. Good question." Natsuo mused. "It could be days. Or hours. Or a couple of minutes."

Right on cue, Asuka's familiar piercing screech rang through the little room, startling some of the birds. Feathers flew for a minute as they shuffled around, trying to replace themselves in a better position. One landed on her prosthetic, white and pristine. She shook it off.

"Asuka, what's that you've got?" Fumiko crooned softly. Asuka cawed at her again before flapping over and landing on her shoulder.

Fumiko took the scroll, curious that it wasn't tucked inside the standard dark green pouch specific to Konoha. It was just the scroll, and had been hastily tied shut, too, like the writer had been in a hurry to get it sent so he or she could leave.

Despite Natsuo's protest- that's an official distress seal, Fumiko, meant only for the highest in order- she quickly unraveled it and scanned the contents with a mild curiosity. What was an 'official distress seal'? A mission request? Had someone defected? Perhaps that meant they were warning Suna of something?

Fumiko froze.

Urgent message. Uchiha Sasuke defect from village. On the run. Sent retrieval team after into the surrounding forest, but Genin only. Need support. Please send any avail. Shinobi.

"Aw, sugar! Sasuke!"

...

"Why did you open this?" the previous fourth kazekage's assistant, the second in command- also the one in charge now that Gaara's father was dead- asked icily, scanning the scroll. It wasn't even really a question.

"Because I was curious," Fumiko said, not quite sheepishly. "But this is serious!"

"This was a general distress scroll also sent to all villages Allied or Allied-pending with the Leaf village," she said. "We're three days away. If this is really urgent, we won't be able to deploy a shinobi to the Leaf village in time to be any sort of help. The other villages will have to help."

"No, no, no," Fumiko protested, flinging her hands around. "I know Sasuke. We need to help."

"I just said-"

"Shinobi deploy tactics, technique number two hundred and three," Fumiko said thoughtfully but hurriedly, thinking aloud to herself. "If a situation must be dealt with, but no available Shinobi are able to be deployed, alert any already deployed ninja close to the area of need. Is there anyone close to-" Funmiko paused. "Oh. Oh, hey! Gaara and Temari and Kankuro are deployed right near there!"

"Fumiko-chan-"

"Ne, I'll send a message right away." Then Fumiko paused, frowning. "But. Asuka doesn't know where they are."

Fumiko turned, biting her lip. She wasn't even really talking to the assistant anymore. "Three options. Send Asuka blind, go myself or with someone else, or ignore the warning..." She shook her head with a snort. "Not ignoring the message. Sending Asuka to Konoha takes a while anyway even if she knew where she was going. So..."

"Fumiko-chan!" The assistant barked.

"Huh?" She turned. "Oh by the way, I need to go."

"What? No-"

But Fumiko was already leaving, not quite speed-walking, but limping as quickly as she could through the halls.

Her mind was whirring. The closest available help was Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari, but they had no idea where to go or that there was even a problem, so she needed a way to travel a three-day trek in just under an hour or two. That quickly destroyed many of her possible ways of going, virtually all except for one.

The Body Flicker Technique. Better known as a shunshin.

Fumikow as capable of it. It was pretty much just running really fast, but the point of a Body Flicker was to use it for only a moment in order to escape or travel a short distance. Using it for more than a minute or two was enough to exhaust her minimal, slightly-larger-than-average chakra stores.

The Body Flicker technique covered about, to a scale, a half mile to every six yards traveled. Meaning the distance would be cut in half from here to Konoha, not including the search through the forest. So in order to get there in time, if it took five minutes to travel six yards by foot and a half second to cross with the Body Flicker... The technique would need to be in use for a minimal time of about eight hours total.

If more than five minutes depleted her stores...

Soldier pills. Fumiko thought quickly. Eating more than four regulation Suna chakra pills was enough to possibly make a person sick, or get them injured, depending on the succession and rate of which they were eaten. So four would have to be her limit. Traveling at her highest speed, she might be able to cut the shunshin time in to perhaps seven hours, but she would be more or less incapacitated, unless...

Gaara's B-rank mission was supposed to have a minimum of four days. So that meant three days in Gaara-terms, so that meant...

The Sand Siblings would be heading back now.

Fumiko thought hard, stepping down the stairs. The soldier pills would double her chakra. To put them to full use she would have to exhaust herself completely four times. If she ran at her top speed, pushed it, and refilled four times, then she would be able to travel for a maximum of about thirty minutes. But without chakra, she could run at a much slower pace for an hour or so before her body failed.

So she would shunshin for six to ten minutes, run out of chakra, run hard. She would be able to travel about a half mile running and about eight miles with the shunshin. Then she would regain her chakra with the pills and do it again. If she did it in this way, she would be able to cover a little less then two-thirds of the distance.

But if she used the last of her non-chakra strength to search for Gaara, who by that time would be around one-third of the way home, she could intercept them. They would be able to both support her, and shunshin to the location of Sasuke.

Fumiko nodded to herself. By this time she was already in Gaara's room- she hadn't really registered walking. Quickly she found Gaara's meager supply of shinobi tools, which included a pack of four pills, the standard allowance for any wrapped pack.

Fumiko could send someone else. But she needed something to do, and beside, Sasuke was an acquaintance of hers and she wanted to help. The shunshin technique used only Yang chakra, a purely physical part of the chakra. This was the kind Lee used- impossible to really manipulate, but used to strengthen muscles for taijutsu.

Fumiko had realized over the past month or so after extensive research- to help Lee- that she herself couldn't use chakra in it's mixed form. She could, however, filter each part of her chakra into their pure forms. She had been for years- it was how she used genjutsu, which was mainly yin-based. She still couldn't do most jutsu, because most jutsu required mixed chakra, but now her options were more ranged.

The Body Flicker was even easier when you were moving in a straight line without any obstacles- the two-thirds trip she had planned was mostly desert. Her prosthetic could cause problems, but at that faster speed, it was actually easier for her to stay balanced.

She could do this.

Fumiko smiled.

Leaving Suna's gate, she took a deep breath, made a sign, and vanished.

...

Running faster than light was exhilarating. You couldn't see anything but blurs of color- there wasn't even sound, your breaths and the verbal world around you disappeared. She was moving simply to fast to hear it. It was like you were moving through tunnel vision, being sucked through a thin straw you were too big to get through.

The problem was the immediate strain on your chakra coils.

Stumbling was inevitable but highly discouraged, seeing that if you fell, you were likely to smash yourself into a little grease splatter on the ground, so Fumiko paid very close attention to her footing.

Soon enough the desert was thinning from dunes to a long, flat stretch of sand, and Fumiko's chakra was running on fumes. She skidded to an ungraceful, flopping, rolling stop, inhaling sand and who knows what else. When she finally slammed into a rise of sand and poofed to a halt, she coughed, and stumbled back to her feet.

Then she was running normally. Her limbs ached, the sun burned, her lungs burned, and a lot of things hurt from her high-speed, not-quite-fast-enough-to-break tumble, but she ran. She busied herself with jumbled calculations as a distraction.

How long had it been since the distress scroll was issued? Two hours at most, one at the least. How long had she been traveling? Ten minutes. If the part of the letter mentioning Genin had been referring to at least Uzumaki Naruto, then Sasuke would likely be stalled for a long time- five to six hours at most, two at the least. So Fumiko had roughly about four, five hours at most to get to the scene.

Trip. Stumble. Can't breathe.

Fumiko staggered to her feet and bit into the first soldier pill. It was bitter and absolutely disgusting, but she swallowed it, and right away she could feel her coils refilling rapidly, along with extra that slammed through her systems like a pulse.

Go.

Colors swirled around her. Time was lost; she traveled in a straight line in what she knew was the direction not to Konoha's gates, but to the edge of the path Gaara and the other Sand Siblings would take back to Suna. If her timing was right, she would intercept them at an angle beneficially in the direction of the forest.

If she was wrong, then, well, they had a bit more running to do.

Three soldier pills later, she was starting to feel the strain. The problem with soldier pills was that they put in the exact amount of a little past too much mixed chakra, and overinflating your coils more than once causes a little bit of disruption. It was especially hard on her in particular, because she was only using yang chakra, so her supply of yin chakra was doubled every single time.

To counter this, Fumiko left Genjutsu in the strangest of places alog her trail: for an hour or so a cactus would look like a stone, that sand patch would look like pavement, and that lizard would look like a snake to anyone who saw it, but it helped to deflate her coils enough to get rid of the pain.

On the fourth she was ready to stop.

Tumbling to the ground again, she mumbled positive things and lurched back to her feet. Time to run, and this would be her last go, so she had to find the siblings quick. Luckily, her determinations had been correct; she was on the path and there were no footprints to suggest recent travel.

So she ran, not at a sprint (which she couldn't do) but at an uneven, steady jog.

The sand was just beginning to spread into an expanse of farmland, dotted with trees but still smeared with sand.

Luckily, she'd just found her friends.

"Gaara!" she gasped happily.

His red flop of hair jerked as his eyes moved from the ground to her face. Gaara's eyes narrowed a little in confusion. "Fumiko?" he called. "What are you doing?"

Temari and Kankuro glanced her way as well.

"'Sup?" Kankuro asked cheerfully. Temari just smirked.

She was winded and waited for them to reach her, which didn't take long. When they did, Gaara helped her to stand straight, and she leaned against him.

"Hey, guys," she said once she got her breath back. "I shunshined here-"

"The Body Flicker Technique? All the way here?" Temari frowned thoughtfully. "Fumiko, not even I have enough chakra for that. "How'd you manage it?"

"Soldier pills," she said by way of explanation. Before Gaara could protest, Fumiko waved them all off and continued. "Guys, something's up at Konoha. Suna got an urgent message about five hours ago. Sasuke's trying to defect."

"Uchiha?" Gaara seemed surprised. "Uchiha Sasuke?"

"They need help. You're the closest team, so I thought you could help. It's labelled as an A-rank mission, but it said it might get worse."

Gaara nodded. "We can handle that. Can you walk?"

"Yup. I just need a second… I won't be able to shunshin again."

"What location?"

"Either in Konoha's forest or just outside it," Fumiko said as the other two Siblings watched. "But that was hours ago. They might not be there. But I think that Uzumaki Naruto was put on the retrieval team they sent out after him, so he should still be there."

"Was there any other information? If they sent out a team and made it A-rank, there were probably other enemies."

"No. I think it was rushed, and they weren't quite sure what they were dealing with at all. If it were my guess, I'd say they're just grabbing at straws and using shaky eyewitness accounts to form at least a semi-accurate description."

"That isn't a lot to go by." Gaara mused. "But I'll try my best. Temari, Kankuro- what about you two?"

"I'm in," Kankuro said.

"Why not?" Temari shrugged and hefted her fan. "I could use some target practice."

Gaara looked at Fumiko. "And I suppose you want to come as well?"

Fumiko gave a wheezy laugh, grinning. "Well, don't you know me so well? Why do you think I came instead of sending another ninja?"

…

Right away there was a problem.

"I sense someone." Gaara said. "But there are others- I can't find Naruto."

"What do you mean?" Fumiko asked. "Who do you sense?"

They had moved close to the forest. To their right, there was a large expanse of grassy meadow that went on for miles, and to their left, the dense forest. The ground they stood on was filled with chest-high brush and grass- a mixture of the two.

After searching for only a few minutes, sensing for chakra- which Fumiko couldn't do, so she was trying to listen instead- Gaara had found someone.

"Nearby, there are six. I recognize three but can't place them."

"Chakra natures sometimes reflect the person," Fumiko mused. "Describe them."

"The first one is almost gone. Dark green, almost black, but it feels... loose. Closer to that one is another... overpowering, also green. Also weak, but not depleted."

"That's not Sasuke or Uzumaki Naruto," Fumiko observed. "Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, I think. What about the third one?"

Gaara grimaced. "Very bright green. It almost seems loud."

"Must be Lee." Fumiko said with a shake of her head and an almost-smile. This was serious. "I don't know who those other guys are- must be the A-rank part."

Gaara nodded. "Kiba and Shikamaru, then, are in the forest. Lee is out there," he said, gesturing to the fields. Kankuro and Temari both looked at Fumiko- she wasn't sure quite when she had been trusted with strategy. But now even Gaara was looking at her expectantly.

From what Gaara was saying, at least Shikamaru and Kiba were hurt. Out of the three siblings, Temari knew the most medical ninjutsu, and as for evading through the forest, Kankuro's puppets would have no problems. Temari could cut paths through the trees.

But Gaara, on the other hand, would have slightly more resistance with the forest as a battlefield. His style of jutsu required a wide, open area filled with rock and soil that he could use, nowhere for the opponent to dodge or hide. Fumiko herself was a non-jutsu medic- one to one group and one to the other.

"Alright." Fumiko said, biting her lip. "Temari, go help Shikamaru; Kankuro, find Kiba and Akamaru. Stay close or maneuver near each other if you can. Gaara, you and I'll go help Lee."

"No problem." Kankuro nodded. "Ready, Temari?"

"As I'll ever be. Lets go."

They took off.

Fumiko could move on her own now, she didn't need support. She wouldn't be able to fight, but she had brought her first-aid med-nin pack, which was slung over her shoulder. She could help in other ways. Gaara disappeared with a flush of wind and Fumiko followed.

Darting through the grass was difficult. There wasn't a lot of completely solid footing and her prosthetic was getting tangled in the grass. But Fumiko, despite everything, was decent at Taijutsu effects if not fighting- when she fell, she flipped off her hands, or rolled semi-gracefully and pulled back up.

As they travelled further into the plains, she heard the sounds of battle. Seconds later she saw it as well.

Her first thought was: holy freaking sugar, this guy has ribs coming out of his hands.

Her second thought was more a rush of dread and a half-stumbled, "Gaara!"

They skidded to a stop twenty, maybe thirty feet away. Sand whipped out from his gourd, cork flying to who-knows-where. It careened forward, yards ahead of us but at a rate faster than Fumiko could follow. Gaara jerked his hand, clenched it; she couldn't quite see what it had done, but the multi-bone bladed fist slowed just short of Lee's face.

Not fast enough. Gaara saw it to. So he splayed his fingers, hand going wide into the air. A ball of sand whipped and blew from the point of contact, whirling up a storm and pushing both the bone-wielder and Lee back several yards. Lee yelled in surprise.

Lee had still been reacting to the sound of Fumiko's voice, thankfully, and had taken a step back. The small movement had been enough to deflect most of the sand's force from the more fragile parts of his body.

"Massive injuries. He's not getting back up. Gaara, get him," Fumiko whispered.

Sand flowed up around Lee like a cocoon, protecting him. Fumiko got the idea that even if she hadn't said anything, he would have done it anyway.

"Who are you?" the pale man asked, half curiously and half annoyed, as Lee dropped easily down to the grass. Fumiko knelt beside him to check his pulse. Gaara stood to her right, arms crossed, sand hissing.

"Allies of the Leaf village." Gaara stated. "I'm a shinobi of the Sand."

"Wh-what-?" Lee sputtered, trying to sit up, but Fumiko pushed him back down.

"Stay down, Lee. Let me help you." She smiled.

"Wha-? Fumiko?"

"I can't heal for crap. But I've been practicing my chakra control, so stay still for just a second."

Gaara stepped in front of them while Fumiko concentrated.

"He is... Sabaku no Gaara," Lee said. The rigidity of his muscles gave him away.

"Calm down. He'll protect you."

Carefully he laid back down. Fumiko spread her hands over him, one on his neck, the other at the center of his stomach.

"Yin Release: Diagnostic Technique." she said softly, separating and purifying her chakra to send a weak pulse from her hands into Lee's body. The first didn't work, nor did the second, but the third pinged through Lee's system and bounced back.

Luckily for Fumiko, her reserve of Yin chakra was almost more than she'd started out with that morning. Her muscles still burned with lactic acid and a lack of Yang chakra to compensate, but so long as she was careful and treated it like a Genjutsu- visualizing the vibrations going through Lee's body and returning- she could somewhat use her Yin chakra.

"A technique?" Lee said weakly. "So you really were experimenting with chakra."

"I can't use most jutsus. But some." she smiled. "The same goes for you, but I'll explain that later," she said before he could jump up with excitement yelling about Youth and ruin her careful concentration. Then she frowned, biting on her lip again as she read the signals.

"Internal bleeding. Not good. But the rest is superficial."

A small amount of Gaara's sand remained around them, encircling Fumiko as she pulled out her medical pack. She could do a basic, very extremely basic, pathetic little diagnostic jutsu, but she knew enough about the body and it's complex systems to help.

"Gaara..." the bone-man said, shifting his arms into an X in front of him. Fumiko flinched and tensed when she heard the slow, agonizing cracking sounds of his hard, shifting, impossible bones. The healer in her wanted to scream. "Is that what they call you?"

Fumiko quickly took a salve from her pack, popping it open and using a sanitized wet cloth to spread it onto his cuts. The internal injuries and possible cracked ribs she could do nothing about, but she could stop him passing out, at least.

"Digital shrapnel!" bone-man yelled, but even his raised voice seemed quiet somehow.

Fumiko didn't even flinch at the sound of racing bullets of bone. There would be no connection.

"Lee. Here's a pain-reliever, I'm going to inject it under your ribcage, so don't freak out, okay?"

"Yes, of course." Lee muttered distractedly, watching as the 'digital shrapnel' was deflected entirely by the small, jagged wall of sand that rose in front of Gaara, and by effect, in front of them. There were small tuft sounds as the sand pushed the bones out and onto the ground at Gaara's feet.

Fumiko did not want to look at them.

"Impulsive, aren't you?" Gaara murmured, almost to himself.

Fumiko felt around on Lee's jumpsuit. It was really very thin, it was just like a second skin. When she found the right veins, she carefully pushed it in and pressed down the plunger. Lee's eyes didn't so much as flicker from the battle.

Gaara looked back as she was placing the syringe back into it's container.

"You're different," he said to Lee curiously, in his quiet way that sounded only like an observation of fact. Then he looked back to his opponent just to be safe. "When you fought against me, you had much more agility and sharpness."

"Lee's still recovering from his surgery, remember?" Fumiko reminded him. "Hey- Lee!" she protested as he struggled to sit up. The medication must have made it easier.

"I figured you would say that," he grunted as he stood, completely ignoring her fettering hands. "I am not the kind of person who holds a grudge. Even so... because of you, I've had a fairly tough time of it." His tone was light, almost mirthful, like an aborted laugh.

Fumiko stood. Gaara's sand began to drain from around them, moving to fill Gaara's gourd once again.

"Really..." Gaara thought aloud.

"Anyway," Lee said, his voice suddenly hard. "Why have you come here?"

Gaara took just a second to turn his head back. His face was smooth, unreadable to Lee, of course. "We owe the Leaf... I owe Konoha a great debt."

"We got a message from Konoha," Fumiko interjected. "An emergency mission request from someone called Tsunade, saying that Sasuke was defecting. The Sand Siblings were close by. We decided to help."

From somewhere, there were cannon-fire sounds like explosions that Fumiko recognized as bursting and/or falling trees crashing open on the ground. Only one person could cause that much damage with one single blow.

"Tch... Temari..." Fumiko said, then smiled. At least she was winning.

A breeze slid through the grass, blowing Fumiko's hair to one side entirely, like a sideways waterfall, rippling. Gaara and Lee's hair shifted as well, but although Gaara had grown his hair out a little so it touched past his ears, it didn't seem to affect him. Lee didn't even notice.

Fumiko finally got a good look at their opponent. He was a good five or six yards away, his skin pale white, with a purplish tinge that made him look like he had pneumonia. His eyes were dull blue, a little lighter than Gaara's. His hair was grey-white, parted in a sagging line across his scalp, bangs tied bag like small ponytails. Two red dots stood out vividly just above and between his eyes, and red lined his eyes in a fashion similar to Fumiko's own dark ones.

His clothes were bland. Light tan, almost yellow-white shirt. The only really noticeable part of it was the thick purple cord tied like a bow around his waist.

And, of course, there were bones sticking out of his ribcage and shoulders. Couldn't forget about that.

Lee shifted into what looked alarmingly like a fighting stance.

Gaara glanced at him. Fumiko saw his lips purse just slightly, teal pupils looking quietly at his raised right arm and right leg. Then he looked away. Still guilty, it seemed. "I'll handle this."

Lee started. Then he turned to Gaara like a child, gesturing with his hands. "No, please. Just back me up."

"Lee-" Fumiko yelped, but had already darted into the field.

Before Fumiko could say a word, a tendril of sand wrapped around Lee's ankle and sent him tumbling to the ground face first into a pile of sand.

"Gaara." she said as Lee spat and said some muffled something that sounded suspiciously like 'I got sand in my mouth.'

"The sand eased his fall." he said defensively.

"Internal bleeding, Gaara. Be careful."

Lee wrenched his body around to glare at them. "Will you please let go of me!"

His injuries seemed to pulse. Lee flinched, groaning. Gaara stepped forward, and Fumiko matched him footstep for footstep to keep behind him and get back to Lee. She stopped when she reached him, but Gaara kept going.

"You're not doing anything in your present state." Gaara said to him quietly as he passed. Then he turned his attention to bone-man, sand curling out of his gourd like a twisting cobra above his head. "I've got this."

"But!" Lee protested, trying to get back up. Fumiko kept him down on his hands and knees.. "Do not let your guard down. He uses his bones to attack! He can launch them, like you saw before, and forces them to protrude from his body. He is able to control them all at will!"

That didn't sound at all healthy, but Fumiko figured it was either some bloodline trait or a generation-sensitive kekkei genkai. that allowed him to do such a thing.

"You are Sabaku no Gaara." the bone-man said with mild interest.

Fumiko wondered how everyone had heard of his battle-title. It had spread so far and wide that Fumiko had met civilians in Konoha who swore up and down that 'Sabakuno' was Gaara's last name, but it was two words, not one. 'Gaara of the desert.'

A fitting title if nothing else.

"You wield sand, hence the name." There was an itchy, writhing, sliding sound as the bone-man's bones slid slowly back into his chest and arms.

"Gaara," Fumiko called, eyeing the bones as they vanished under his skin. "I'm pretty sure this guy is a Taijutsu specialist. Be careful."

"Yes," Lee confirmed. "That is true."

A taijutsu specialist was the best thing Gaara could have hoped for in a fight- if the enemy only used physical attacks and it was virtually impossible to hit him with a physical attack, well, it put him at a distinct advantage. But he had been the victim of hubris once before- with Lee- and he wasn't about to make that same mistake twice.

Bone-man raised his hand, did something. Fumiko thought she saw spots of white at his fingertips.

Gaara's sand shot forward, smashing the spot where Bone-man had been standing into so much shredded grass, dirt, and chunks of rock. But the other shinobi had moved back and jumped, spinning. "Digital shrapnel!"

Bone bits flew through the air, easily deflected by Gaara's sand. But it was closer that time, just half an inch from his forehead. Bone-man touched down lightly on his hands, flipping back into the air as the sand crashed down where he had landed.

"Ah, I see," Fumiko said quietly, watching as the sand followed Bone-man's rapid movements: smash, smash, smash, forcing him back farther and farther,accompanied by a familiar hiss. "He's trying to get Gaara's sand away from him and fire. That won't work, though. The sand moves on it's own once the attack gets too close."

Bone-man danced through the air, somehow twisting away from Gaara's every strike. He hit the ground, jumped, hit the ground, jumped, stayed in the air, hit the ground.

Finally Gaara stopped and Bone-man straightened.

"Sabaku no Gaara," he said again. His voice was high, almost like a young boy's. "Rather a foolish nickname, isn't it? You're nothing without that sand of yours."

He threw an attack; Fumiko didn't even see what it was. Gaara's sand blocked, and moved, flashing around him almost like it was shunshining around it's target, but Bone-man impossibly avoided every attempt. He launched another digital shrapnel and the sand curved to deflect it.

Bone-man landed just feet away from Gaara, barely a yard from Fumiko herself. A small amount of sand shifted in the air in front of Gaara.

"Sand shower." Gaara said.

Bone-man had landed, not even questioning when the sand stopped chasing him. Apparently he hadn't realized that it had built up in the air above him. He looked up as it tensed, but if Gaara really had wanted to use it then it would be moving by now.

"What a surprise- uf!" Bone-man grunted as he found he couldn't move, feet wrapped in sand like they were.

Fumiko stifled a giggle. It had been almost like a Nara attack, slinking through the grass to the enemy shinobi. But there was more to Gaara's sand than what he carried in his gourd.

"But as long as I have it," Gaara said, raising his hand, "I can do anything. The only fool here is you. If I need more sand, I can easily use the earth we're standing on to make more."

Fumiko nodded to herself. She was barely even concerned. She had analyzed the opponents movements, expectations, and known abilities. Compared with Gaara's current level of strength... so long as she and Lee stayed out of the fight, it would be over shortly.

Lee watched in awe as new sand exploded in a spiral from the ground like some sort of reverse tornado, coming from the ground up, catching Bone-man is its grip and crushing him.

"You did it!" Lee exclaimed.

Gaara tilted his head. "Almost."

He clenched his fist. Fumiko almost felt the power snap through his chakra. The sand tornado seemed to implode, bulging and compressing on itself. Fumiko braced herself for the sickly wet pop. But then, she realized...

No sound.

Her eyes widened. There was just no way...

Gaara put his arm down. "When I look at this guy," he said, "It reminds me of him. Uchiha. His eyes. Sasuke had the same eyes this guy does."

"The same eyes?" Lee paused to think about it.

"Gaara-" Fumiko started, to tell him that Bone-man wasn't dead, hadn't been crushed; that something in the air had spiked, like it had spiked all that time ago in the forest of death, when Sasuke was collapsed, only this was worse, more controlled, more precise.

"I know." Gaara said grimly.

Something pushed out of the sand. A hand, covered in strange black markings that looked like interlocking, open squares like brand marks. Lee sucked in a breath as Bone-man emerged, the skin of his shoulder torn open put showing only clean, untouched bone underneath- no blood or muscle. It was being covered by the unnatural expansion of bone.

Fumiko could only see Gaara's back, but she could imagine his narrowing eyes at this sudden change of events.

"Im... impossible!" Lee blurted when Bone-man stepped completely out of Gaara's sand burial. Sand dripped off his body like water, but he seemed otherwise unaffected.

"That sure was a lot of pressure." Bone-man said dryly, lifting his head to make eye contact with Gaara. Taunting him. That was never a particularly good idea. But Fumiko's cynical thoughts scattered and she shivered as she saw the missing chunk of skin on his skull- she could see his teeth and gums moving. The bone part. "If I hadn't grown a membrane of bone underneath my skin, I would have been crushed beyond recognition."

"More bones. He's a monster." Gaara said, voice almost a sigh. "A freak."

'Well, he certainly is a nuisance." Lee said without grandeur, for lack of a better thought.

That was enough to make Fumiko snort. She quickly covered her mouth. This was absolutely not a good time to be laughing, at all. They were in the middle of a battle.

"I underestimated you." Bone-man said evenly. "But that's the last time I'll get caught in your sand."

They all did. Fumiko and him were so small that people automatically assumed they were weak and wrote them off. Granted, Fumiko really was weak, but still, it worked greatly to Gaara's advantage to be able to surprise people.

But now they had lost that edge.

Usually when Gaara caught people by surprise, they died.

Gaara slammed one foot into the ground, digging it in to gain leverage, then did the same with his other foot. He smashed his hands together in a series of rapid seals so quick and hard they were audible, skin hitting skin. Fumiko couldn't distinguish them but knew anyway.

"Lee, back up!" was her warning, pulling back on his shoulder.

As Gaara's jutsu deepened, a wave of sand roared to life at his feet and rushed away from him like a tsunami at it's focal point. The ground shook. Sand particles scuttled through the air, and Fumiko had to squint her eyes to prevent ay from getting into them.

The sand rose, missing Lee by a half an inch. The force of his own chakra pushed Gaara's hair up. His voice was a low growl, pulled from the deepest part of his concentration. "Sand tsunami!"

For the first few seconds, the wave rose ten, twenty feet above her head, and the rest of the meadow was lost to her sight. She almost felt bad about such a peaceful looking place forcibly changed into a desert, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice.

'That's the last time I'll get caught in your sand'. Ha! she thought with a grin. Try avoiding Sabaku no Gaara's attacks while you're standing in the middle of a desert.

The destructive, impossible force of hundreds of thousands of pounds of sand snarling after you in a growing wave taller tha abuilding and as wide as the terrain was enough to shock Bone-man, which was, in turn, enough to stall him long enough to sweep him under. Even if he had tried to evade, he would have been smashed down.

The wave broke over the ground, thinning out rapidly but still rushing with terrible force. For a second, Bone-man's body pushed up through it, but then an aftershock wave pulsed and shoved him back under. Fumiko stumbled as the ground shook, but stayed standing.

The tsunnami crashed through the sparse trees, obliterated the grass, shoved the soil so deep under it that you wouldn't be able to grow a wildflower a mile in any direction.

"You- you did it!" Lee exclaimed, shocked.

Gaara lowered his hands. "No, not yet." he said, and Fumiko could tell he was growing frustrated. He knelt hard, knee slamming into the ground, and pressed his hands to the sand quickly. "Giant sand burial!"

Pulses of sand rippled across the new desert terrain. From a bird's eye view, Fumiko figured the ripples looked small, but from the ground they were taller than her, massive, enough to rumble the earth with every push. Quickly Fumiko knelt, steadying herself with one hand as the earth raged.

Lee stumbled back and forth, yelling, fighting for balance. Fumiko just kept low to the ground, steadying her center of gravity, but still cries were forced from her throat as she was shaken every which way.

Finally it died down. The sand was still. Fumiko looked up.

"Why won't he give up?" Gaara mumbled. Fumiko glanced at him, shocked, and saw that his expression as almost pained.

"What?" Lee blurted.

"There's no way." Fumiko said in disbelief. "No possible way any human could survive that!"

At first she thought the rushing sound was coming from a log jutting out from the sand. But then she realized with horror that there was tentacle pushing up from behind it, whipping around like a baby snake unsure of its environment.

"Wait a minute." Lee said. "What is that?"

Gaara just stared hard at the sand, sensing, feeling, tensed for the moment of attack.

Something began to emerge from behind the log. First there was a pale, purplish hand. Then chipped, jutting bone like some kind of twisted dinosaur display. The tentacle waved from the other side of it.

Before the thing could fully reveal itself, Gaara brought his hands up in a tight, straight line, nothing wasted, every movement painfully deliberate.

A tornado of sand rose once again, completely enveloping whatever that thing was, whatever Bone-man was. It swirled but had no tangible effect- he walked right through it, foot breaking through with no effort at all. Fumiko gritted her teeth.

Gaara's hands clenched viciously. "Sand coffin!"

The tornado solidified and impacted. Still, there was no sound. It was no dice.

The foot moved, pushing as it slowly but surely pushed out of the sand coffin attack. The sand bowed where he tried to exit, eventually parting around him like the red sea, and all at once he broke free, dashing towards them.

Fumiko didn't even have time to suck in a breath to scream. It hadn't been a tentacle, she'd seen earlier, it was a tail. His skin hard darkened to an angry grey-purple, and spear-like bones protruded from every part of his body in a sick display of power. The redness around his eyes-which had shifted yellow- had turned black and expanded until they looked almost like feathers for mardi gras.

And he was fast.

Gaara slammed his open hand forward and clenched it. A blob of impossibly dangerous sand smashed into Bone-thing, but he just shook it off, shifted, moved forward. Gaara brought forward his other hand, again and again, missing again and again- right, left, right, left, at a rapid fire speed.

But it was having absolutely no effect.

When Gaara realized this he quickly moved to the side, away from her and Lee, and knelt to the ground, placing one hand on the sand. It raised and curled around him protectively. Impossible to break- except for when Bone-thing smashed right through.

Fumiko screamed, then, as the thing's sharp bones connected with Gaara's unprotected chest. "Gaara!"

He was thrown flying backwards with a breathless grunt, smashing into the ground far behind them with an explosion of sand from his dissolved gourd. Fumiko whipped her head back around to see the thing sitting, crouching, watching. Like he was playing.

"Is that the best you can do with your ultimate defense? Is that all? I'm very disappointed."

Fumiko froze. He was right beside them; four, maybe five feet to her immediate right. Sand curled weakly in two separate columns on either side of him, remnants of Gaara's last-second attempt at protection.

Fumiko looked back, stricken. And here she'd thought it would be an easy battle. Gaara wavered but pulled up to his hands and knees, glaring back at his opponent. His sand armor was cracked and an entire chunk broke off, partially exposing his skin.

A growl beside her, then the absence of body heat. Instantly her eyes were dragged back to Bone-thing. "Lee! Don't!"

Too late. Lee seemed to materialize behind Bone-thing, leg pulled back. "He is not your only opponent. I am here as well!"

Lee spun. Fumiko dashed forward to help him. His first kick missed; the second almost connected but had no effect. Fumiko was right under him as he jumped, reaching, so that maybe, maybe she could touch him and shunshin with the last of her reserves-

The tail flung forward. She had forgotten about the tail. There was no time to move. Fumiko's mouth opened in a silent, airless scream of fear.

Then something hot and warm and rough slammed into her from the side, throwing her back- sand. She hit the ground with a grunt several feet away that punched all the air from her lungs. Coughing, she looked up, and saw the tail smash through the protective wall of sand and hit Lee.

But it wasn't fatal.

It would have been, Fumiko realized, mouth gaping. I almost died.

Lee flew back with a cry. He landed far away on Bone-thing's other side- now the thing was between her and Lee.

She was alone.

Gaara caught his attention on purpose probably, the sand on his face repairing itself. They stood no more than six, seven feet away from each other, facing off. For a moment, just a moment, Bone-thing glared at her. The Killing Intent was clear in his eyes. She quickly struggled to her knees, terrified of being caught on the ground.

But then he looked back at Gaara.

"I'm tired of that sand." Bone-thing said irritably. "Very well, Gaara. You first."

He reached his hand up behind his back, like he had a sword sheath strapped there, except there was nothing. Fumiko watched with horrified fascination as something seemed to grow out of his skin, small at first, but Fumiko knew what it was.

Bone user. The base of his neck.

Gaara's expression twitched into disgust, the corners of his eyes tightening and the edges of his mouth pulling down in disbelief as Bone-thing grasped the top of his spine and began to pull.

The thing that came out was like a whip, but also like a sword, sharp and jaggedy like vertebrae were. Bone-thing was crouching.

"He shouldn't even be moving," Fumiko whispered to herself.

"The bracken dance." Bone-thing said in what almost sounded like a jeer. "First, the vine."

It lashed at Gaara like the whip it looked like, hitting sand but wrapping around it so that the sand had to jump up on every side of him. He didn't even flinch. Gaara was boxed in, covered in sand, spine whip tied around it.

"Then, the flower." The bones on his hand expanded, seeming to grow and swirl into each other until his arm looked like one giant unicorn's horn. A sharp, terrifying, deadly unicorn's horn. "This bone is my strongest. It will go right through you- defenses and all."

The sand in front of Gaara bubbled and then erupted like fountains, sealing like a wall around the spine in front of him.

'Summoning defense!" Gaara yelled, really yelled. He, too, was becoming almost desperate. "Shukaku's shield!"

The sand mixed to form the shape of not a wall, like Fumiko had expected, but a bastardization of a monk or perhaps a raccoon wearing a straw hat, sealed with a red circle on its wide stomach of sand.

If Gaara had used that jutsu, then he felt threatened on a completely different level.

Bone-thing paused for a moment to glare at it.

He wasn't being smart. The defense only stood in front of Gaara and could stretch no further. If he wasn't so incensed, he might have tried either finding a way around, or going after either Lee or Fumiko or both, because Gaara wouldn't have been able to protect them and himself at the same time.

But despite his earlier comment, he was too proud. Too confident.

He pulled back his unicorn horn arm and stabbed it into the defense.

To his credit, it went farther than Fumiko ever expected was possible, drilling and spitting sand in every direction. Moments passed like this. Fumiko knew Gaara had used the absolute hardest materials he could fuse with his sand and was using every ounce of his power and concentration to keep it together.

It wasn't good for him. He wouldn't be able to hold it up for very much longer, and when it fell, he would be exhausted. Chakra depletion was in no way possible in a fight like this as a chakra-base, non-taijutsu fighter.

If Gaara ran out of chakra, and this guy could still fight when the shield fell...

They were all dead people walking.

A few intensely suspenseful heartbeats slammed into Fumiko's ribcage.

Thump.

If it failed-

Thump.

And Gaara had no strength left-

Thump.

He would die.

Thump.

Then they would die.

Thump.

A loud crackling filled the air as the unicorn horn attack began to shatter. Cracks and fissures raced across the bone, fighting each other to crack pieces off first. Sand stopped flying as an unstoppable force met an immovable object.

The bone fell apart until only his arm was left.

"It's so strong." Bone-thing said in a guttural voice.

"I took the hardest metals in the soil I could gather." Gaara said tonelessly. But it was a last resort for a reason- he had to be almost if not completely depleted of chakra by now. "And then I fused them with the sand using my chakra."

There was silence for a second as everyone tried to wrap their minds around the situation.

"Tell me." Gaara said at last. "That's a very unusual jutsu. It's a Kekkei Genkai, right?"

"It belonged to the Kaguya." Bone-thing said softly, but vehemently. "But now... it belongs to me, and me alone."

"You're the last of your clan, huh?" Gaara seemed to ponder this. "Then your clan perishes today."

"That might very well be the case." Kaguya-Bone said bitterly, but almost like it was an inside joke. "My body has weakened. I will not last much longer. However... I will still live on. Because... I am not alone."

"You're not alone, you say?" Gaara's voice was a scoff in itself.

"That's right." Kaguya-Bone said firmly. "My existence has been consumed into Lord Orochimaru's ambition. That means a part of me will survive in Lord Orochimaru's heart... forever."

Fumiko looked at the ground. Poor Kaguya-Bone... he had simply put his faith in the wrong person. The kind of person that would go behind your back and kill just to make others kill out of anger and revenge. Fumiko had ever met Orochimaru, and perhaps there was still good in him. But... to do this...

"Orochimaru has brainwashed you well," Gaara said in a soft, disappointed tone. "you sad little pawn."

Kaguya-Bone's feet sunk into the ground. Then Gaara's jutsu failed him, defense exploding apart. But he used it, minus the unbreakable force, wrapped it around the spine and yanking on it hard.

The sand around Gaara dispersed suddenly, almost violently. Fumiko realized he had his hands set in a hand sign.

If he could still use jutsu, then this would be his last.

Kaguya-Bone cried out as the spine broke. He tried to hit out at the sand; writhed and twisted, but he couldn't escape the sudden whirlpool of quicksand below his feet. Slowly, slowly, he was dragged under. It took only seconds.

"I will bury you two hundred meters below the surface of the earth," Gaara said, brows knit together with something akin to sadness as Kaguya-Bone vanished. "Under pressure so great you won't be able to move a finger. Imprisoned there until the end of time."

It seemed like a sad fate to Fumiko. Her heart squeezed.

Finally, finally, it was over. The sand stopped moving.

"You did it!" Lee cried again, hopefully for the last time. "This time, I am certain of it.

Fumiko picked herself up and staggered over to him, to Gaara, to see if he was alright, to see...

Her vision doubled, then tripled, and then blurred until she was virtually blind. Chakra exhaustion. She had felt it before. Fumiko and Gaara both needed to rest, and soon. She managed to get close enough to lean on him slightly. Despite his obvious tiredness, he supported her.

Gaara just stared at the sand.

"Dance." a voice rumbled. Gaara flinched. Fumiko, having collapsed on herself, couldn't make her muscles respond, and so Gaara gripped her waist with one arm, pulling back. "Bracken dance."

Out of the corner of her eye, at her feet- movement.

White.

All of a sudden there were spears and swords of bone shooting out of the ground like new plants, deadly and sharp. One to her left, three to her right, two in front of her. Gaara stumbled with her in tow.

They tore out of the earth so quickly that it seemed like a painter had taken a brush dipped in white paint and slashed it across a blotch of green. The white wave headed straight for Lee and straight for them.

And then she couldn't see Lee anymore; even without her compromised vision, the spears sent sand flying up in front of him.

She got a sudden feeling of vertigo as the ground lurched beneath her feet.

It took her a second to realize what was going on- Gaara? The sky?- but once she did, she breathed a heavy, weighted sigh of relief. She wasn't dead. Gaara had raised them up high on platforms of sand at the last moment; they were fine.

Fumiko's muscles felt like Jello. She'd definitely overdone it. At least she wasn't bored anymore

She felt like laughing. Loud, hysterical, I-almost-died-laughter, but she couldn't make her lungs breathe enough oxygen to support such a thing. So she settled for a smile and leaned against Gaara, one leg hanging off the edge of their platform.

"Thank you, Gaara." Lee said once he gathered his wits. "You saved me again. These powers of yours are truly remarkable."

'Not really; I'm only able to make the sand do my bidding." Gaara said quickly, looking away. His face was beaded with sweat. Beneath her fingers she could feel his skin trembling with exhaustion. "It's second nature to me now."

"He means thank you." she said.

For a few minutes, the three of them just stared dow at the forest of bone trees. It would be like this forever- if they were all as strong as the bones Kaguya-Bone had attacked them with, then this little pseudo-forest would stay up for a long, long time.

Fitting.

"Maybe... this can last forever." she said, not quite a pant. "Instead of Orochimaru, maybe this can last forever. Ne, Gaara?"

Gaara smiled, just a little. "Perhaps."

"That was scary, Gaara."

"A tenacious opponent, but this time it's over." Gaara said as way of reassurance. Then he cut his eyes to Lee. "We won't be seeing him again in this life."

Lee dipped his head in agreement. "Yes. Good."

Gaara wavered, then winced. Now they were both leaning against each other. "My strength is gone," he muttered to the sand. "We must descend."

"I am not his pawn!" an outraged voice snarled.

Fumiko's spine stiffened.

"He is the one... the only one that ever gave my life meaning!"

He tried to turn. No time to react. Not for Gaara, anyway. But Fumiko moved instinctively, moving, craning her body to see Kaguya-Bone, playing on Gaara's exhaustion to push him away, falling on him to make him jerk to the side.

He raised his unicorn horn.

"But how could the likes of you ever understand that?"

The point hurtled to her eye. A scream ripped through her throat, shredding her nervous system like fruit thrown onto a cactus, but never made it fully out of her mouth, unheard, silent. All that came out was a pitiful uh- uck!

But then it froze.

A centimeter away from stabbing right between her eyes, it stopped.

A single severed brown hair hovered on the point for less then a second before sliding off and drifting away on the wind. She stared at the tip.

"He... he is dead." Lee said disbelievingly.

For a second, all Fumiko could do was make small, whispery noises of fear.

Then she dissolved into a puddle of trembling nerves, shivering violently, unable to lift her hands from where they were raised just a few inches off the platform, a useless, aborted attempt to protect her face. Gaara blinked.

"Fumiko... you..."

"I... I... I..." she stuttered, unable to speak.

OhKamiIalmostdiedforyouthatalmosthappenedohsugarGaaraIalmostdiedhelpmehelpmehelpme!

Gaara pulled her to him and said, "You idiot," and didn't let her go the entire time the platforms descended, or when they staggered to a patch of shady trees, or when they sat down. She clung to him desperately, curling into every inch of negative space, still shaking, but he wouldn't have let her go, either.

Above her, Lee and Gaara conversed quietly.

"It was sheer luck. She should've been killed." Gaara's voice was stunned and empty.

"No, it was not meant to be." Lee disagreed. "My sensei has often said to me, that a good ninja always makes his own luck."

"That meddlesome mother hen." Gaara recalled, not quite offensively and not quite approving. He was in denial, convinced, convinced that she would have died a second later. And she would have.

Lee reacted violently.

"Gai-sensei is nothing of the sort! Yes, he stepped in, but only that once- and only because I was not yet strong enough. I am very grateful to you for having saved my life. But I warn you, I will not abide anyone speaking ill of my sensei!"

Fumiko had her face buried in Gaara's shirt, almost his neck; but she was slumped, not in control of her own body, awkward. It smelled like desert and Gaara. He wasn't dead. She wasn't dead.

There was a pause.

"So you're another one, hey?" Gaara said. "You have someone in your life whom you honor and revere so much that every hurt inflicted on them is inflicted on you as well; and the closer they are to you, the greater the pain... to feel so strongly about someone you would fight for them... and die for them." Gaara shifted, arms tightening around her. "You and Naruto have that."

"You do as well, Gaara." Lee said quietly. "What she did for you, you would have done the same for her. I can tell."

Fumiko was slowly but surely drifting out of consciousness. But just before the darkness took her, she heard, "Yes. I suppose I do, don't I?"


	28. Chapter 28

Temari raised her eyebrow when she saw their battered condition. "Took you long enough," she said flippantly, but Fumiko could tell she was worried.

She had been more or less hysterical earlier. But once she fell asleep, she dreamed only of wide Suna deserts stretching forever, and sitting on the wall, best friends quietly facing each other. After she woke up, she was considerably calmer.

They wove their way through the forest of bone, carefully avoiding jutting shrapnel just barely out of the ground, jagged branches of it that would cut out your eye if you turned the wrong way.

"This is so cool," Fumiko had said, grinning. "It's like it's made of china, or something."

They moved to the forest as quickly as they could contort themselves around the bones, which turned out to be not very quick at all. All three of them were exhausted. Fumiko knew they wouldn't be able to go back to Suna for a while. not until they built up their stamina again.

When they did make it to the edge, Temari was waiting for them, dragging out behind her a shell-shocked Shikamaru. Temari was nothing more than a little dirty, whereas they were utterly bedraggled. Fumiko and Gaara were still leaning heavily on each other, acting like supports.

"Shikamaru!" Fumiko yelped, jumping to intercept. He flinched at the sudden contact before realizing that she was hugging him, not hitting him. "I haven't seen you guys in forever! Who else is here besides you, Lee, and Kiba?"

"Choji, Neji, and Naruto," he answered as she pulled away. "... But I have no idea where they are. Temari wanted to find you guys first."

"Fumiko is pretty much our battlefield medic," Temari said. "Besides, by now Kankuro should be looking for everyone in the forest."

"She's a medic?"

"I'm not a medic," Fumiko disagreed. "I can barely use jutsu unless its yin or yang, and even then, it's really really bad. But I know first aid."

"'But I know first aid'." Temari mimicked. "Yeah, she's pretty much a medic."

Gaara shook his head. "We need to find the others. Now that I'm in the forest I sense more signatures. There's a dark orange chakra, and a pale white one. Both are dangerously low."

"Choji and Neji?" Fumiko said with alarm. "Temari, do you know where Kankuro is? Gaara and I, we can barely move. We won't be much help..."

"It's all right." Temari said. "Can't be helped. Take Shikamaru back to the village, and I'll help find the others."

"But I want to help!" Shikamaru protested.

"Yeah, yeah," Temari said, rolling her eyes. "Well if you want to come I certainly won't stop you. Gaara, can you find Kankuro anywhere?"

"He is already with Neji and Kiba."

Temari nodded. "That's good."

"I can help too," Lee piped up from behind them. "I am weak, but still strong."

"No, you're fast." Temari corrected. "Go to the village quickly and give the medic-nin there our location."

Lee nodded. Fumiko supposed she shouldn't have found it hard to believe when he took off, jumping straight up and dashing through the trees until he vanished from view.

"Lets go find Choji then," Shikamaru muttered anxiously. Temari nodded at him, then at Gaara, who led the way. Him and Fumiko had to stay on the ground- if either of them tried to tree-jump at that particular moment, the most likely case scenario was flailing their way back down to the dirt.

But they moved as quickly as they could. After a while they split up and spread out in the general area where Gaara sensed his chakra to be. It would figure that, after almost ten minutes of searching, Fumiko would be the one to find him. She choked on a gasp.

"Guys! He's here!" she cried into the air, then dropped to her knees in front of him, hands moving hurriedly, instinctively.

Choji looked dead. That was the honest to Kami truth. He was thin, painfully so for the Akimichi, and he was torn up and battered down on every inch of his skin. He was leaned haphazardly with his back against a tree, unconscious.

Fumiko quickly checked his pulse, gnawing on her bottom lip until she felt blood trickle from the broken skin. The she went still. Her fingertips fluttered to different parts of his neck, searching, searching, and then to his wrist, but there was nothing.

She put her ear to Choji's chest. Something was moving; if not beating then twitching. When she put the back of her hand against the young genin's lips she felt his breath, quick and uneven. Choji's skin was hot.

Quickly she pulled out her kit, but she could almost laugh at it; trying to save a life with a standard first aid pack. Inside the bag was two more containers with pain-relievers and syringes, alcohol swabs, skin-numbing ointment, anti-naseua pills, a cold compress, aspirin, antibiotics, four soldier pills, a thick roll of white bandages, adhesive large square bandages, a sewing kit, and two standard-issue heart fibrillating seals.

She made a hand seal then spread her fingers over him. "Yin release: Diagnostic jutsu!"

The feedback was breathtaking.

"A red pepper pill?" That was the only reason he could be this ruined. She remembered food pills being a specialty of the Akimichi. "Oh, sugar. Soldier pills are out."

Quickly she pulled out one of the heart defibrillators and pulled down the collar of his shirt to stick it on his chest. It activated instantly, heating up. The seals worked by sending prepackaged, weak pulses of chakra into the bloodstream or, preferably, directly into the heart, momentarily beating it.

Fumiko snapped the cold compress and put it over his forehead, injected another syringe of painkillers into the artery of Choji's neck. Then she set to work disinfecting the deep cuts and scrapes covering his body, then either carefully put a bandage on them, or rubbing the ointment in and shakily stitching them shut, then wrapping them in the cloth bandages.

Her fingers were bloody now but she ignored it, turning to yell into the trees again. How far had they gone? "Gaara! Temari! Shikamaru!"

There was a low, keening hiss as the fibrillation seal died. Quickly she pulled it off, then put two fingers against his neck. Stronger, but still weak; it was barely pumping itself. She laid him out on the ground to pump his chest with her weak arms.

"Kami, Kami, Kami," she gasped to herself in time. Nothing was working. "C'mon, Choji!"

No other choice. She had to use the last defibrillator seal.

She put it on his chest. It activated.

No chakra left. Torn muscles. Overstimulated nervous system. Massive internal bleeding and severe outside wounds.

Fumiko couldn't do anything on her own. Oh, she could keep his heart pumping for a few more seconds, dress his external wounds, clear his breathing ways. But if he was left in her care, Choji would die. Even if she had the proper tools, she needed medical ninjutsu for this, and she just couldn't do it.

"Fumiko!"

"Gaara!"

"Miss!" a voice said calmly, suddenly beside her. Fumiko whipped her head around to see a white-clothed Konoha medic-nin beside her, flanked by three more. Numbly she moved out of the way and he took over.

She staggered up and back, straight into Gaara. Fumiko tore her eyes away from the degenerate scene before her to look at him. "Gaara- he's dying- I tried but-"

"Oh." the sound escaped his throat, not quite a gasp.

"Choji!" Shikamaru's voice ripped through the trees. "Choji!"

The three combat medics picked Choji up and vanished, shunshining away, choosing speed over caution. Two more were left behind, and they approached as Temari and Shikamaru jumped to the ground beside them.

"Nara Shikamaru. You are the leader of this mission squad, correct?"

"Y-yes."

"Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Neji, Rock Lee, and now Akimichi Choji are being transported or are in the hospital. Hyuga NNeji is in critical condition. We need to take you with us as well for a medical screening. You three as well." he added, nodding at them.

"Kankuro," Fumiko asked. "What happened to Kankuro?"

"He brought Hyuga Neji and Inuzuka Kiba to the hospital. He didn't sustain any injury."

...

...

It was the second time in her life that she woke up again in a hospital. Only this one was cleaner, brighter, better lit. The walls really were white. She was wearing another nightgown, except that this one was blue, and not quite so itchy. Her cleaned clothes were folded on the corner of her bed.

She sat up groggily. Fumiko wasn't attached to anything, so it was much easier to swing out of bed. Before Fumiko stood, she took her satchel from the clothes pile- it still had all of her things in it- and clipped it around her waist.

After a moment, staring at her medical pack, she slung that over her shoulders as well. It felt right.

She had to hop to the door for her prosthetic- because someone had left it there for some reason instead of by her bed. Once it was clipped on, though, Fumiko was mobile- actually, she felt great.

The tile floor was cold and unfamiliar under her bare foot, but she couldn't find any shoes.

She clacked down the empty hallway, peering into open rooms, looking for someone she knew. Fumiko was overwhelmed by a burning need to see if Choji was okay.

Fumiko turned a corner ad was met with the sight of pink hair. The hallway was dark, but she recognized Sakura, who was staring at a door. Her expression was unreadable. Fumiko paused, then waved, a relieved smile splitting her face.

"Sakura!"

Sakura jumped.

"Who's in there? What happened?" she called.

Sakura raised a finger to her lips, eyes frantic- Shh! But it was too late. Just as Fumiko clapped her hands over her mouth, the door slid open. Sakura staggered back. Shikamaru opened his mouth to speak, but without another word she took off.

Fumiko tried to say, "Wait, Sakura-" but then the kunoichi pushed past her, almost knocking Fumiko over in her escape. She vanished around the corner. Fumiko stared wordlessly after her, then turned back to Shikamaru.

"Fumiko- you're awake."

"Yep. And I feel way better now." she paused. She wanted to ask so badly, but what if there had been tragedy? She didn't want to make Shikamaru upset. But she had to know. "... How's Choji?"

A slow, tired smirk spread across his lips. "He's fine. Thanks to you."

"Thanks to me?" Fumiko was surprised. "But he was practically dead when the medic-nin found us. I didn't do anything."

Shikamaru tried to say more, but just then, there was a voice from the other end of the hallway. "Well, well. Up already I see, huh, Fumiko?"

"Lady Tsunade," Shikamaru said.

"Tsunade?" Fumiko turned. A pale woman with blond hair tied off in two loose pigtails over her shoulders stared her down with soft, sarcastic eyes. "Oh- hello. You must be the new Hokage."

"And you must be the infamous Suna civilian." Tsunade said with a smirk. "nice to finally meet you."

"Ne? You know who I am?"

"Oh, I hear all about everyone," she said dryly. "My patients tell me a serious crapload of stories. I hear a lot about you, from ninja and civilians alike."

"Really?"

Tsunade looked up, eyes fixed to a point a few feet away, and smiled. "Besides, you kept my patient alive."

Fumiko blinked. "Do you mean Choji?"

"I do." Tsunade met her eyes again. "I saved his life, but you gave me something to save at all. I saw that defibrillator seal."

"Standard issue." Fumiko shook her head, half flattered and half confused. She shifted awkwardly, feeling the suddenly heavy weight of her pack. "I'm- I'm sure anyone else would have done the same."

"Right over his heart." she said ruefully, looking down at her like an interesting poem she couldn't quite decipher. "His external wounds were already sealed, so I had enough time to focus only on the internal cell damage. Had I been forced to stop the bleeding, there might not have been enough time."

Fumiko murmured, "Cell damage." Then she raised her voice again. "I have a background with it, my mom is a medic. Excuse me, Tsunade, but where is Gaara and Naruto? And what happened to Sasuke?"

"Naruto's in there," Shikamaru interrupted, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the door he'd come out of.

"Yes, and Gaara's already been discharged. He's been in your room since the second he was awake and allowed to move." Tsunade said. "You must have just missed him. Kankuro made him leave to get food."

She smiled a little. Of course he had. Fumiko silently thanked Kankuro for looking out for him.

Fumiko took a breath. "And Sasuke?"

A deliberate quiet filled the negative space in the air. "No."

"Oh... Oh. Uzumaki Naruto."

"I was just about to visit him," Tsunade said. "Do you want to come in?"

Fumiko followed behind him. Sure enough, there was Uzumaki Naruto, craning his neck to see who Shikamaru had been talking to.

"Oh, hey Fumiko!" he said.

"I heard that your injuries were pretty serious." Tsunade said. "You seem to be doing pretty well, considering."

Uzumaki Naruto's face didn't change. It was still sad.

Sasuke had successfully defected, then. It was really too bad- Fumiko had been looking forward to becoming friends with the dark-haired boy, maybe finally get him to eat something she made, or reconcile him and Gaara. And poor Uzumaki Naruto, trying so hard not to lose his best friend, only to be cut down. Here he was, sent to the hospital, wrapped entirely in white bandages on almost every inch of his skin.

Which... now that she thought about it...

Fumiko almost giggled. She would have if it weren't for the almost solemn look on his face and the scratched Konoha hitai-ate in his lap. "You look like a mummy, Uzumaki Naruto!"

That seemed to snap him out of it.

"Hey, well at least I haven't been sleeping all week." he retorted. "I haven't even seen Gaara yet. People keep telling me he hopes I get well, but he's always in your room." Uzumaki Naruto huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Fumiko laughed. "Sorry."

The door slid open suddenly behind her with a bang and a "Take it easy, Gaara!"

She turned. Gaara puffed breaths, obviously winded and still weak, one hand pressed against the door frame to hold his weight. Kankuro stepped up beside him, hands in his pockets, grinning easily.

"Thanks a lot," he said sarcastically, but the mirth in his eyes was all good fun. "I swore up and down you weren't gonna suddenly wake up as soon as Gaara stepped out of the room."

"I heard... you were in here." Gaara said.

"Aww, c'mon!" Uzumaki Naruto complained. "You finally come into my room and it's only because she's in here? What's the deal, Gaara?"

...

"Choji?" Fumiko said, sliding the door open. He'd regained consciousness and was moved to a slightly less advanced hospital room. "Are you awake?"

"Who is it?"

She stepped in, sliding the door shut behind her. Choji still had stabilizing seals dotting his neck and wrists, stimulating his pulse. He wasn't wearing a shirt, only scrubs, and he was painfully thin. He was hooked to multiple artificial feeding IVs taped to his chest, and the drips trickled slowly into his system.

He looked very, very weak. Even his eyes, which were usually squinted by his chubby cheeks, seemed wider, more thoughtful, and sadder. She could see his ribs clearly under his bruised skin, wrapped with bandages.

"It's me. Fumiko."

"Oh. I'm… sorry. I can't talk very… well."

Fumiko smiled. "That's okay. It kind of feels like the first time I visited you in the hospital, huh?" she considered. "Actually, no it's not."

Choji gave a raspy laugh. "I'm still… hungry. And… I could really go for some of that fudge."

Fumiko laughed. "Sorry. It's one thing to give you fudge when you have mild food poisoning. It's another thing to give you fudge when your heart is being supported by medical seals. Besides, I don't have any!"

Choji's face turned serious. "About that… I don't remember you from the forest. But everyone keeps telling me you saved my life."

"Not this again!" Fumiko said, but she was smiling. "Look, Choji. I didn't save you. I helped you. I kept your heart beating for as long as I could and I fixed your outside wounds. But it was Tsunade that saved your life, okay? If I'd been able to use medical ninjutsu, then maybe I might've saved you, but I can't."

"Wait, you can't… do medical ninjutsu? But then… how…"

"With this," she said, pulling the medical pack out of the folds of her cloak.

She, for some reason, had been carrying it with her since she had woken up three days before. In all actuality, Fumiko had never used her pack in a real-life situation- it had been collecting dust in Gaara's room, where it had laid just in case he ever needed it for a mission. Fumiko almost hadn't brought it with her.

She held it up. The bag was a cross-pouch, almost like a purse, except it was the size of a knapsack, and the strap and bag were almost always hidden by her cloak. "It's… a first aid bag. I use civilian and ninja standard equipment."

"Shikamaru…" Choji mused. "Shikamaru would say you're… prepared for any situation."

"Shikamaru would say that me not knowing medical ninjutsu at the site of a battle is troublesome," Fumiko snickered.

Choji cracked a smile. "True enough. But still... thank you. When I used that pill I thought that was going to be it. I didn't expect anyone to be there, let alone sand shinobi."

"I'm not a shinobi, remember?"

Choji eyed her for a moment. "You know... sometimes it's hard to tell."

...

Lee was still recovering, but only from his surgery. Despite his fight with Kimimaru just four days prior, he had actually only sustained minimal injuries, thanks to Gaara. He was on strict orders from the hospital and Lady Tsunade not to train or otherwise exert himself further.

It was not enjoyable in the least.

So when Fumiko approached him, thumbing through a book on chakra that he could barely understand, asking- no, demanding, but in an unusual Fumiko way that made it seem like she was only asking- for training, he had readily agreed without even asking what kind of training she was referring to. Once he did, however, he was surprised.

Gaara and Fumiko had appeared out of nowhere during his fight in the meadow, just in time, as well.

Gaara had looked radically different. His clothes, his hair, his style of fighting had all changed. Even his demeanor, the feel of his aura was different; softer, more gentle. It was still rigid and unyielding, but at the same time, it had lost a wall Lee had not realized was there previously. And now, Lee realized, there had been a wall.

Fumiko, on the other hand, had looked exactly the same. Her hair was a little longer, yes, and she had grown a little, but her smile was the same, as was her outfit and general sunny disposition. During the short time she had helped him on the meadow, Lee had been startled at her total lack of... anything different. It had been like no time had passed since they last saw each other.

Although, something intense had gone down in her mind after the fight. Nearly dying had set something rolling that just would not stop. Gaara acted different as well, more fluid around her. He only noticed it because he was looking for it, but he circled her constantly; unconsciously, perhaps, judging the threats around them and fixing himself between the two.

They moved so closely with each other, so in accordance. As if they were two parts of one person, black and white, night and day, impossibly different yet unmistakably similar. When Fumiko turned, Gaara moved back to keep a berth vision, and when Gaara took a step in any direction, Fumiko would shift almost imperceptively so they were aligned.

However, Lee was certain they had no clue.

"You want to... come again?" he said, blinking.

"I want to learn how to close my gates," she repeated. "You can't use chakra, yet you can open your gates, flooding your chakra system until your body has no choice but to let you manipulate it. In the process you lose a lot of it off your skin, but the point remains that you can." Her brow creased in thought. "So it must work the same way as an opposite. I can't use mixed chakra, but if I could close my gates, it would stop coming out of me as wasted energy, I should be able to use it."

She tapped the page of her book with a fingernail. On it was the printed, color-coded picture of a body, marked with the gates, their location, and varying amounts of official measurements of chakra flow within them. The caption was filled with scientific gibberish he had no idea what it meant. It was clearly written in Japanese, yet, he couldn't read it any better than he could read English.

The fact that she seemed to be able to easily interpret the thick text led Lee to believe that perhaps happiness, although dominant, was not the only thing that made up this strange creature called Fumiko.

"See- the gates moderate it. The gate of death and the gate of opening are the most involved with subconscious chakra control, which is my issue. When I separate and purify chakra, I can use it, but it takes time and strength. And because of... recent events..." Fumiko hesitated. "I'd like to be able to use medical ninjutsu."

"Yes; it makes sense that you would want to learn how to control it." Lee agreed. "But how would closing your gates help with that?"

"Obviously, I won't be able to close the eighth gate. Supposedly my gates opened as a survival tactic because I started out with virtually nothing, and it's because they're open that I'm alive. So the way to go would be to close at least the first gate- my control would get better the more regulators I close."

"But not too many," Gaara added.

Fumiko nodded. "Yeah. Probably the only healthy amount would be two, three tops. At that point I would be able to use jutsu, but I would be pretty much useless. Two would be ideal- control, and an extra reserve in case I need better jutsus."

"Well, that is a nice idea, but I only know how to open gates."

"I have a theory that the technique is the same," she said thoughtfully. "When you run out of chakra, your gates revert back to being closed. I think that it would take effort to close and maintain my gates, and that they would revert back to being open when I run out of chakra. Our situations are almost... exactly opposite, like a mirror or something."

Lee glanced over at Gaara. If he was surprised at his friend's suddenly highly intelligent speech, he didn't show it. In fact, Gaara met his gaze, and there was a slight waver at his lips, like he wanted to smile.

"I could... ask Gai-sensei," he said uncertainly. "And perhaps Neji could look at your tenketsu again."

"I haven't seen Neji since we got here." Fumiko said. "I would like that."

...

Fumiko was sitting in a hard, straight-backed wrought-iron chair on a wide wooden porch overlooking a large, well manicured lawn decorated with an ancient-looking oak tree, short green grass, and small patches of tiny flowers.

If Fumiko had thought the Kazekage tower was big, she had been sorely mistaken. In Suna, she supposed, space was crucial, and oly the most elite got extra space. It also didn't have large clans- Suna was mixed, blended, boys took their wives names and vice versa. No one clan got very big, and anyway, the ones that were often spread out across the village.

But Konoha, wide, sprawling Konoha, had so much extra space that it seemed empty at times. The Hyuga clan's household was so big that it was like a small town- houses scattered across the plains in a neat kind of disorganization, with small dirt roads and sidewalks, straight flower and vegetable gardens, even a small shop that Hyuga members could sell homemade ointments and cloths.

This wasn't even the main section of the household. This particular part of the housing was for the 'secondary branch' of the Hyuga clan. It was strange seeing Neji bow to every main branch member they had come across on their way inside, adding sama on the end of every name. Fumiko, naturally, oohed and ahhed at everything, earning glares and upturned noses from almost every Hyuga, be they main branch or secondary.

Neji couldn't stop stressing the fact that she absolutely had to respect honorifics. He had vouched for her, a non-Hyuga, to come into their home, and the last thing he wanted was to get zapped with his forehead-jutsu thing. Fumiko accidentally fumbled and called a main-branch boy no older than six Eichi-kun instead of Eichi-sama, and the little boy sneered at them and tried to hit her thigh. She'd yelped, partly, she had to admit, out of confusion.

The boy had run away screaming about getting his daddy when Gaara pinned him with a deadly glare.

"How can you tell which is which, anyway?" she had asked. "You guys all look the same when your foreheads are covered!"

(And almost every Hyuga wore some kind of hat, hitai-ate, bandanna, or just had long bangs, whether they were main branch or not. It was extremely confusing.)

But now Neji had made time for them in his unusually busy Genin schedule mixed with physical therapy, checkups, D-ranks, and fulfilling his secondary-branch role at his home, bowing to the ground and answering the whim and fancy of every main household member no matter the age of the person or the nature of the demand.

Fumiko found it rather degrading and opened her mouth multiple times to defend him, but he always hissed at her out of the corner of his mouth to quiet her. Gaara would put a hand on her shoulder, mutter that it wasn't their business.

"Are you sure you don't need help with anything?" she asked uncertainly.

"No, no." he said. Fumiko could tell that he was embarrassed at being seen this way. But she could also tell that something had changed during his fight with Uzumaki Naruto. He was trying his hardest to make up for being bitter at a first glance. "It's fine. I have a few minutes. What did you need again?"

"For you to look at her chakra and tenketsu again," Lee said.

"I want to try to see if I can close a few of my gates, to get better control of my chakra." she explained. "You saw it once, but ah... I didn't know anything about chakra then."

"... Could we go inside?" Neji said urgently. "If any of the main branch see me using my byakugan-"

"Is it really so bad in your own home?" Now even Gaara was getting irritated. "You are treated as a servant."

"I deal with it." Neji said tightly.

They moved inside, to a wide, wood-paneled room surrounded by thin rice paper doors that filled the room with light. A few secondary branch members puttered about, nodding at Neji as they passed.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Fumiko bit her lip. "I don't want to get you in trouble."

"It's fine." Neji snapped. Then he took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and formed a hand sign. Then he snapped them back open, veins spreading to his temples, eyes pulsing white. "Byakugan!"

The seconds ticked by. Slowly, Neji's eyes traveled from her head down to her foot, assessing. Once again his lips pursed as he tried to ignore the fact that it was impossible and instead trying to focus on the doorways themselves.

"...Interesting."

"What is?" Fumiko asked curiously.

Neji continued to stare. "The burst gates have healed open. I didn't notice it before, but the spiritual matter that usually holds your tenketsu paths healed open, almost like a pierced ear. However, it is very nearly shattered everywhere. Chakra runs freely throughout your body."

"... Huh." Fumiko said, unable to think of anything else. She hadn't even thought about the broken restraints- she'd just assumed that the barriers were like doorways, unlocking as each was open. But apparently, they burst. The books in the archives didn't quite explain that; they only highlighted the likely side effects of opening them.

"But could she close them again?" Gaara asked quietly.

Neji considered. "In the same way Lee causes his spiritual energy to dissipate, you could, in theory, create it. But it would be much more difficult to achieve- like gluing a balloon back together rather than popping it."

"But it's possible," Fumiko confirmed. "That's what I needed to know."

"Neji." a voice said from outside the doorway. Neji froze, instantly deactivating his byakugan.

"I'll be just a moment," he called politely.

...

Neji watched as they left, craning his neck to look over the shoulder of the main-branch Hyuga member who was telling him to do something- he wasn't really paying much attention, something about incense.

Fumiko hadn't changed at all since the first time they had met. Neji felt a sort of flustered bafflement almost every time she spoke- the status quo of both shinobi and civilians didn't seem to apply to her; she had the values and mind of a ninja, but the heart and compassion of an ordinary villager untouched by death- except that she wasn't untouched.

Hyuga Neji didn't understand her. And there was so very little that he didn't understand.

It bothered him.

"Neji!" A sharp, violent warning pain flared in his skull. "Are you listening to me?"

"Ahh! Yes, of course, Hoheto-sama."

But even as Hoheto resumed speaking, Neji glanced once more at the walking, friendly phenomenon. Just before she exited off the branch area onto the main road, she looked back. Caught staring, Neji blinked. For the first time since he was nine, he flushed.

She raised a hand and waved before vanishing.

...

"You have to be able to sense it, Fumiko-chan."

"I do sense it, Lee. I just can't recreate it."

"Try to congeal it. Create a membrane of yin chakra where you know the paths are supposed to be."

Fumiko laughed, startled, and glanced up at Lee. "So you did do research on Yin and Yang releases! But how do you know that will work?"

"I do not," he said sheepishly. "But it would not hurt to try."

They were in Konoha's main training field. Gaara stood by the tall, thick wooden posts plastered with faded, empty seal tags, watching from a distance. Her and Lee stood farther down, in the open, just in case something chakra-y happened and blew something up.

Unlikely, but when it came to ninja and ninja tactics, you could never be too careful.

"Touche. Okay. Here I go." Fumiko took a deep breath, focusing on the wispy chakra curling just under her skin, since that was the easiest for her to control. Carefully, holding both her palms to her face, she attempted to purify and channel Yin chakra- spiritual energy- into the first gate. She felt it squirming through her bones.

Nothing.

"Hmmmm." she hummed. "It isn't working."

"Paint it!" Lee said suddenly, loudly. Fumiko jumped. A few other Genin training nearby cast him funny looks. Lee laughed nervously, lowering his voice. "Er. sorry. Fumiko-chan, Neji said it was shattered, but that shreds of the paths were still there. So just, add it on."

"Like new paint," Fumiko said, snapping her fingers. "I get it now. Just make a new picture. Okay. Let's try it again."

...

After several hours of botched attempt after botched attempt, something clamped shut behind her left eye.

It was sudden and unexpected. A breath of air escaped her lips and Fumiko swayed, then stumbled back as energy- chakra- slammed to a grinding halt in her body. All of a sudden she felt slightly nauseous, and exhausted. The ground rushed toward her at an alarming rate.

But then she stopped.

"Whoah," she wheezed. "Head rush. Ow."

"Fumiko?" Gaara's uncertain tone reached them easily. "Are you alright?"

Fumiko raised a hand halfway, waving it with screwed motor controls. "'M fine."

Chakra was warm. Like, really warm. She hadn't known that until just now, when suddenly her first gate was flowing normally, and there was the odd sensation of a brain freeze in one half of her head. Huh, she thought. Maybe that explains why I'm always really warm all the time...

"Fumiko-chan?" Lee asked.

Oh, yeah. Right. He had caught her.

"I did it," she said excitedly. "Holy sugar!"

...

(For Lily. Because this was your idea and I couldn't stop laughing.)

...

Gai hadn't seen any of his Genin students all day. Neji wasn't allowed to train- and despite all of Gai's arguments, the Hyuga boy insisted on following the doctor's orders, no matter how ridiculous they were. 'No strenuous actions'- since when was running laps around Konoha strenuous? It wasn't like he would be doing it on his hands. Ten Ten was on a C-rank with Shino and Kiba, oddly enough.

Gai had been expecting to find at least one of his Youthful students training- but he hadn't been expecting this.

Lee was on the training fields, holding a girl tipped back toward the ground. Their faces were rather close, and they appeared to be talking animatedly about something, although Gai couldn't make out who the girl was, let alone what they were saying.

But she looked pretty. Much prettier than that kunoichi student of his Eternal Rival Kakashi's that the boy was always going on about- Sakura. The jonin wondered if perhaps he had finally gotten over that hopeless infatuation.

Gai jogged closer to them, stopping by the training posts.

"Hey, Lee!" he yelled to them. Lee started and glanced up, as did the brown-haired girl, who looked vaguely familiar.

"Gai-sensei!"

Gai gave his signature nice guy pose, grinning and giving his student an approving thumbs up and a wink. "Looking good, Lee! And I see you've finally got yourself a girlfriend, and a really nice looking one at that!"

Lee's face turned scarlet.

"I really hope," somebody muttered from beside him, "that you aren't referring to Fumiko."

Gai paused, startled, and whipped his eyes to the quietly murderous speaker. The red-headed child from the chunin exams, Gaara, had somehow gone unnoticed, standing in front of the pole nearest to Gai's right. Now he was staring back, lips curled in what looked like a struggle between disgust and clear warning.

Oh. Gai realized with just a little flinch. Fumiko. Right.

Lee quickly tried to let go of the girl, setting her on her feet, but she kept stumbling back down. His face was getting darker and darker, and he was shouting, "No, no, you got it all wrong, Gai-sensei! That is not the case at all! We were training!"

"Err, of course not!" Gai said loudly, unnerved by Gaara's livid, unflinching gaze. What was wrong with this kind, anyway? Didn't he live in Suna? Gai inched in the opposite direction in the manliest way possible.

Gai fought the urge to gulp when Gaara narrowed his eyes at him. He was just a Genin, for crying out loud.

"Hmph." The jinchuuriki grunted. Then he turned his eyes back to the two on the training field. Sand hissed out of his gourd and snaked it's way through the air until it reached Fumiko, unceremoniously curling around her arms and holding her upright. Gai couldn't help but notice that it seemed to shove Lee back a little so that he stumbled. Fumiko didn't notice.

The girl's laugh was clear as a bell in the clearing, if not a little strained. "Thanks, Gaara! Hi, Gai!"

...

(Yep. I feel like an idiot.)

...

"What?" Fumiko gaped. "No way!"

Kakashi eye-smiled at her. Fumiko had never actually met the guy until now, and 'now' happened to be in the Nara house spare room she had been designated for their stay, holding a large stack of canvases in one hand like they were nothing, even though the pile was taller than she was.

"Mah, I saw these and thought of you. Naruto suggested I give them back."

Fumiko couldn't contain her fit of violent laughter. "So the ANBU really did confiscate my paintings?"

"I suggest you put them in a sealing scroll before you leave tomorrow," Kakashi advised, placing Fumiko's things from her month-long stay for the chuunin exams- which she'd totally thought she had lost forever- on the bed. "You wouldn't want to be carrying this across the desert."

...

"Are you sure you have to leave?" Uzumaki Naruto whined. "But we were having so much fun!"

"We have to get back home, Uzumaki Naruto."

"We've been here for an entire week," Temari complained. "This place is so boring."

Fumiko, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro were rested, packed, and ready for the journey back to Suna. This time, though, they would be going at an ordinary speed for about three days- Fumiko was done with shunshining for now.

"C'mon, let's go already," Kankuro said.

"Okay, okay," Fumiko laughed. "You ready, Gaara?"

"Yes."

"Bye everyone!"

"Bye, you guys!"

"Goodbye!"

"See you later!"

"Come back and visit sometime!"

"We will!"

"Bring me back a present will ya?"

"Naruto!"

"Ow! Sakura-chaaan, what was that for?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, I know less than nothing about healing of any sort. Google is my best friend. So forgive any mistakes I might make with that now or in the near future...


	29. Hospital Days

"Haaah," Fumiko gasped. "Sugar... I gotta get used to this."

She panted, swaying on her foot and prosthetic, but she didn't fall this time around.

Closing even one gate was like depriving candy from a toddler- her hyperactive energy suddenly seemed to fail. If Fumiko ever hoped to be capable of closing two and still being useful... she would need to grow her chakra reserves. Something she'd never thought was necessary before- she really had an average amount already.

But that was only when they were all open. The only thing she could do now was try and accustom herself to having less energy so that she could train while her gate was closed- that was the only way she would ever be able to retain it. If it worked, then someday, she would be able to learn medical ninjutstu. The next time she had to help someone in danger, she could do it without fail.

Supporting somebody's life had made her realize something. It didn't matter if she didn't like fighting- and even if she refused to participate, it wouldn't disappear. That was a fact. And people would be injured- good people, kind people.

"I thought you didn't want to be a ninja," Gaara said in exasperation. "So you didn't enroll in the academy."

"Nah," Fumiko said. "I don't. I don't know, I just don't want to be measured by my fighting capability. Not to mention that I think if it's not absolutely necessary, you shouldn't fight. No offense to you and your ninja-ness, though. That's just your way."

Fumiko gasped and with a snap, her gate burst, and chakra flooded through her systems.

"Gaara, teach me how to fight."

"Why? You hate fighting."

"I might think that you shouldn't fight unless it's absolutely necessary, but I don't want it to be absolutely necessary and then not know how to fight."

Fumiko put her hands over her face. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, she filled in the holes, forcing her chakra to move in a straight line. Her knees turned weak but she just bit her lip and kept on going.

Her fingers were bloody now but she ignored it, turning to yell into the trees again. How far had they gone? "Gaara! Temari! Shikamaru!"

There was a low, keening hiss as the fibrillation seal died. Quickly she pulled it off, then put two fingers against his neck. Stronger, but still weak; it was barely pumping itself. She laid him out on the ground to pump his chest with her weak arms.

"Kami, Kami, Kami," she gasped to herself in time. Nothing was working. "C'mon, Choji!"

She wanted, no, needed to be able to do this.

Gaara watched, cautious but stationary on the bed. Another stayover, their first in quite a while. Suna was scurrying over themselves, trying to reorient themselves without leaning on a Kazekage for support. Basically, their social structure had been 'do what the Kazekage says' and now that no one was saying anything, there was chaos.

Fumiko herself wasn't much affected- the Kazekage tended to stay out of civilians' business. Ironically, the civilians of Suna were far better off at handling themselves than the ninja were. She was actually working at the hospital now almost full-time to make up for the flood of injured shinobi fresh from understaffed missions- all of the battlefield medics were being dispatched.

But Gaara was being pushed left and right and forward and backward, forced to do this mission or that, taking night watches on the borders, and basically sticking his hand everywhere to try and hold the glue together. More than once he'd ended up in one of Fumiko's designated care rooms at the hospital for chakra exhaustion.

Ninja were running wild, trying to keep up Suna's appearances. They had tried and failed to take down The Land of Fire's strongest shinobi village, and they were reeling from the sheer number of shinobi they had lost in the process. And now that their Kazekage was dead, they absolutely needed to cement their status.

Which meant accepting all missions sent to them. The problem was, all of their best shinobi had gone to infiltrate the village hidden in the leaves, and so very few had returned. There was such a gap between three-man teams and missions that it was a wonder they all hadn't split in half to make up the difference.

It was strengthening Gaara's relationship with the other shinobi. When they couldn't even trust themselves to have enough ninja to handle everything, they could rely on Gaara as a solid rock. He could do anything, and he was doing it for them. Gaara took more missions, from D-rank to A-rank, then any other shinobi, most times completely on his own while the Sand Siblings completed another.

"Maybe you should take a break," Gaara suggested quietly. "You've been at it for hours and it's getting late."

Fumiko panted, lowering her arms from her face with a shaky laugh, disbanding the patched up pathways. "Ne, I'm all sweaty now."

The civilians had taken over every job that the shinobi no longer had time to do. They were running the shops, the hospital, foreign trade and communication. Some civilian clans with shinobi members were even sending civvies with a little more ninja know-how to teach the young Genin. Only now were people beginning to realize just how flawed the system was.

Gaara nodded in agreement, smiling his small smile. "You should take a bath."

"Hey! ... Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea."

...

Sitting in the steaming hot water, Fumiko felt her tensed up muscles loosen. She sighed, sinking deeper into the bath.

It was next to impossible for her to take a shower without her prosthetic on- and water wasn't good for her prosthetic. ot that she was complaining- baths were just as good, if not better. They were good for thinking, and soaking was better for a sore chakra system than a shower- it was easier on your tenketsu points.

"I am not his pawn!"

Fumiko scrubbed at her hair with shampoo that smelled a little like mint leaf. Almost dying had planted a desire to never lose life- that included being able to heal people. What if Kaguya-Bone hadn't died? Or Fumiko hadn't moved, and Gaara hand flinched forward just a centimeter?

She would have been useless.

"He is the one... the only one that ever gave my life meaning!"

He tried to turn. No time to react. Not for Gaara, anyway. But Fumiko moved instinctively, moving, craning her body to see Kaguya-Bone, playing on Gaara's exhaustion to push him away, falling on him to make him jerk to the side.

He raised his unicorn horn.

"But how could the likes of you ever understand that?"

The point hurtled to her eye. A scream ripped through her throat, shredding her nervous system like fruit thrown onto a cactus, but never made it fully out of her mouth, unheard, silent. All that came out was a pitiful uh- uck!

But then it froze.

A centimeter away from stabbing right between her eyes, it stopped.

A single severed brown hair hovered on the point for less then a second before sliding off and drifting away on the wind. She stared at the sharp point of the bone, going cross-eyed, shivering.

Fumiko rubbed the rough, grainy sponge over her skin until it started to turn red.

There. Clean.

She had been given a second chance, something not often gifted. Now she wanted to use it.

Fumiko turned the water off, smiling. One would think that such memories would haunt her- but they didn't. They just- reminded her. She wanted to help people like Kaguya-Bone, Gaara, and Uzumaki Naruto- people who might have turned out different with just a push.

She toweled off her hair, stepping out. Gaara didn't even look up when she stepped into his room wrapped in her towel to search for the clothes she had stashed in his drawers. He was setting up a board game, moving the pieces.

"Blue or yellow?" he asked, holding the pieces up over his head.

"Blue," she answered, clipping on her bra. "Which game is it?"

"Sorry."

Fumiko laughed, struggling to put her arm through the right hole in her shirt. "Gaara, you never win Sorry!"

...

"I've got it. He'll be fine." Fumiko muttered as she ran her hand across the man's chest. He was shaking with pain, cut open from his right shoulder down to his abdomen. It was an ugly cut, and he'd already lost so much blood. Fumiko had no idea what had caused it, but it was serious.

Her hair was tied back with a bandanna to keep the hair out of her eyes as she worked. Fumiko wore thin latex gloves and a surgeon's mask, abandoning her cloak for the sake of sanitation. Now she wore only her sleeveless turtleneck and shorts. She didn't look like much of a doctor, but every patient that wasn't on the verge of death was sent her way.

The Suna hospital had long since abandoned most forms of healing not directly involved with medical jutsus- it was cumbersome, required more materials, and was less likely to work. Which was why all of a sudden, they were reeling from the lack of capable med-nins, and only had civvies with basic knowledge. There were only two med-nin left, and only so many capable civilians.

Even Fumiko's mother, who had graduated as a child from the academy into the non-battlefield medical corps, specializing only in medical jutsu and not physical confrontation, had been deployed on a mission, but Fumiko didn't have time to worry about that now.

Quickly she set about running a diagnostic, administering painkillers and antibiotics as well as a basic anti-venom just in case. This man, according to his mission file, had been sent to intercept a load of stolen cargo in the land of Birds- stolen by bandits who specialized in hidden, undetectable deaths, so poison wouldn't be much a far stretch.

There was no more time to wait for the painkillers to kick in. Biting her lip, Fumiko threaded a needle and let to work stitching it shut. The man screamed at her, but the other nurses- two girls that had been assigned to work for her- held him down.

"Ame, type two inflammation seals," Fumiko ordered, crudely holding skin together with her forefingers as she hurried to seal it shut before he could lose any more blood. Obediently the woman rushed to the cart piled high with care supplies that they sped all over the tiny hospital, grabbing three and quickly coming up beside her as she worked, placing each one a third of the way down the cut.

The top one was on the left of his wound, the second, to the right, away from Fumiko's feverishly moving hands, and the third, placed directly on top of the stitching. There was a hiss as she activated each one, and right away, the red swelling hindering Fumiko's progress began to fade.

She finished quickly and tied it off. The two seals outlived themselves, stark black ink fading. She brushed them off; without her asking the other girl- Tsuki- handed her a thick roll of white bandages while Ame set to work rubbing chakra-enhanced salve into the stitches with deft fingers to speed up the cell regeneration process.

Fumiko pulled on the roll, then wrapped it snugly and efficiently around the man's torso while Ame and Tsuki held him up. He was still struggling, but much more weakly this time. When that was done, Fumiko peeled off the bloodstained gloves- blood barely bothered her anymore- and threw them in the trash.

"Fumiko-sensei, how much morphine should we administer?" Tsuki asked when he went limp on the operation table. "He'll be in a lot of pain later."

Fumiko pursed her lips. The hospital was running lower and lower as Suna struggled to regain economic stability. "Move him to one of the empty units. Administer... point nine kilograms," she decided at last. "When he wakes up again, move it up to point ten."

"Yes, sensei," she said, and set about following her instructions.

Fumiko was growing accustomed to the new honorifics. Lately, people had either been referring to her as either Fumiko-sensei or Fumiko-sama in the hospital, depending on their rank. Those she worked with directly tended to call her Fumiko-sensei, and the volunteers and administrative officers leaned more toward Fumiko-sama. She'd tried to discourage it, but there was no discouraging people who saw you as important.

When the shinobi was finally settled, the pain eased from his face and breathing normally, Fumiko sighed, rubbing her face with one hand. She'd been working since eight, and it was nearing eleven now. She wasn't quite tired, but almost running a section of the hospital by yourself was a little on the stressful side.

"Fumiko-sama! Fumiko-sama!" a male civvie volunteer skidded into the room, breathing hard. "Room B-4, there's a woman shinobi there bleeding badly with extreme damage to her left arm. She's fallen unconscious and no one can wake her."

"Sugar!" Fumiko swore, slipping out past him into the hallway. Behind her she could hear Ame and Tsuki wheeling the cart along behind her, scalpels clanging in their box. There was no time to think, just move on to the next room.

...

Fumiko stood in the watchtower's only room, beside Gaara. He stared out at the inky, moonless night, regarding the shadowed, shifting dunes with caution, searching for signs of danger with his shirt removed while she worked on his neck.

Gaara looked exhausted. The circles under his eyes were even more profound, and he was starting to look sickly after overusing his chakra again and again. Now he had overestimated his supply and gotten himself smacked in the shoulder with a blade when his sand wouldn't respond. The damage was minimal; Gaara had eventually won, but would still need stitching.

He refused to go to the hospital- there was no one else to watch the night shift. So when Fumiko's day shift was over she'd headed out with her trusty medical pack, climbing the tower;s rickety steps to find him glaring out at the desert intently, pressing a bloody cloth to his neck.

"You cannot keep doing this to yourself." she said lightly as she cleaned the area around the room.

He winced. "It barely hurts anyway. I'm the only shinobi besides Baki who can handle one-man jobs, I can't keep resting in the hospital when there's nothing wrong with me."

"Chakra depletion is definitely something, Gaara." He barely flinched when the needle slid into his skin, but the numbing ointment had done it's job well. "And so is a sword wound."

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" he said to change the subject. "You look worse than I do."

"Ne, Ne," she disagreed. "I'm the only one in the hospital used to such crazy hours that can do advanced civvie healing."

"You're using the same logic as me!" Gaara protested. She whacked him lightly on the arm with her free hand, fighting a grin, and continued to wrap the cloth bandage from the left side of his neck to under his right arm. Gaara raised his right arm to help her out.

"I'm not the one getting stabbed, now am I?"

...

When Gaara staggered into his room, hoping for at least a few hours of uninterrupted meditation, he wasn't expecting to find his bed already occupied.

Fumiko was still dressed for the hospital, cloak probably at her house. The green surgeon's mask was pulled down around her neck like some kind of weird necklace- she hadn't even bothered taking it off. She still had one glove on, the other dropped haphazardly beside the bed on the floor. The bandanna had come loose, and now her hair was spread about her like a smushed halo.

She was fast asleep, spread-eagled on the bed and snoring lightly, not even under the covers.

Why the heck was she in here? Shouldn't she have gone home? But then Gaara realized that the Kazekage tower was closer to the hospital than her house, and that she must have limped in here like a zombie for a few precious hours of sleep.

He couldn't help but smile despite his bedraggled state- Fumiko was the only person he knew who looked just as peaceful wide awake as she did when she was sleeping.

Suna was stabilizing, just a little, bit by bit. It wouldn't be restored until a new Kazekage was appointed, but a few people had stepped up- Gaara included- to help sort through the mass chaos of missions and businesses and foreign affairs, along with the village elders. They were busy trying to select a candidate for the new Kazekage- but no one in Suna could qualify for them as the most powerful.

One of the biggest glaring problems he had been assigned to sift through, along with food rations and guard shifts, was the situation of civilians running the Academy. The civilians assigned there knew slightly more about ninja information than others, enough to be able to follow the textbooks, but in practice they couldn't help the students at all. Taijutstu and weapons classes were virtually useless.

His cloudy, tired mind had begun weaving the beginning threads of some plan or another, but he couldn't really think like this.

He collapsed onto the ground beside the bed with a grunt, leaning his head back against it, and slipped away into the white world of semi-conscious rest.

...

Fumiko hurried into room B-7, planning to use the brief slowness at the hospital to check on some of her more stable patients while more experience doctors were free to finally look over those in worse condition. She flitted into the room, sliding open the door, where she knew Tsuki and Ame would be caring for the concussed, injured Chuunin ninja.

When she walked in, however, she was greeted by a familiar pale brown haori.

"Mom? Mom!"

"Good morning, Sensei," Tsuki and Ame greeted unanimously.

Fumiko's mother turned, startled, from her conversation with Fumiko's medical helpers, and then her face broke into a disbelieving smile. She had been gone for days on some C-rank to follow up her few days on another C-rank, which was after her scurried succession of D-ranks. Basically, Fumiko hadn't been able to speak with her mother virtually since she'd gotten back from Leaf.

Which meant that her mother had no clue she was working in the hospital.

"I don't believe it," her mother said as Fumiko tackled her with a hug. "You're the sensei I've been hearing so much about?"

"I've been co-operating the B floor with Misumi," Fumiko said with a grin. Misumi was a medical ninjutsu user that helped her keep the patients and their care organized. "Between the two of us we have about twelve doctors and six volunteers working under us."

"But Misumi just left on a mission," her mother said with confusion, pulling away.

Fumiko groaned. "Not again!"

...

"You want to... what?" Fumiko asked, blinking.

"Start a new branch of the Academy," Gaara said, pushing through the mounds of paperwork he'd been apparently buried in for two days now, which explained why she hadn't seen him at all. "One that has set rotations so that three shinobi can be there at any time. Instead of having seven individual classes run by seven different teachers, we can have a general class with three instructors."

Fumiko scanned her eyes over the papers and half-scrambled writing on lined paper. "And this is your responsibility?"

Gaara nodded distractedly. "The elders assigned me to try and thin out the strain on the Genin student situation. We never have enough shinobi, and the Civilians just can't teach them how to do the necessary things to become competent fighters."

"Sounds good." Fumiko smiled and pulled up a chair to the desk, sitting. "Misumi just got back, and she's taking over my shifts for the next four days or so. Perfect timing."

Gaara blinked at her owlishly. "I don't need help, Fumiko. You should get some rest."

She chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I could maybe sort some of this out for you-"

"I'm fine."

"Really." Fumiko raised an eyebrow. "Because you're signing a napkin that says 'remember to organize papers by submission type' on it. And this one's been signed twice," she added, pulling one from the stack that seemed to be leaning closest to Gaara- the apparent to-be-signed pile. "I don't think it needs another signature."

Fumiko, despite his protests, began to sift through the paperwork, deftly glancing over each ant then putting them into neat piles- two for approval forms, signed and unsigned, two for supply requests, and two for application forms. Gaara's movements got faster as he realized he no longer had to pull unsigned papers out from stacks of unsigned ones.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"What was that?" she said, grinning, as she flicked through the suggested application forms submitted by the elders and various other ninja. "I didn't quite hear you."

He flushed. "Oh, never mind, if you're going to be like that."

"Aw, don't be such a sore loser, Gaara." she giggled. Then she paused, eyebrows furrowing. "Holy sugar, you were submitted as a sensei request!"

"What? Really?" he blurted, looking over her shoulder. Fumiko pulled it from the others and held it out to him. Gaara took it, mouth open slightly in surprise. On the paper was Gaara's name, title, age, ninja rank, and picture, as well as a few comments on why he had been suggested.

"Proven to be competent in the ninja arts and weaponry," Fumiko read with mounting excitement. "Young. Experienced in battle; extremely skilled with ninjutsu, generally excepted by the shinobi population as fairly capable in taijutsu...!"

As Gaara stared at it, Fumiko quickly looked through the others. "And Temari and Kankuro were suggested as well!"

...

Fumiko still worked tirelessly on her gate and chakra training whenever she got the chance.

It made her tired constantly even without the insane hours at the hospital and the work she was doing with Gaara to set up the new Academy. She consumed twice as much food as she usually did and slept at least three times longer just to compensate. Every second she wasn't working on something, she was sleeping. She ate on the fly.

But it was working. Now, months later, she was capable of keeping her first gate closed for the majority of the day without feeling any particular strain. It was second nature now. Her second gate was giving her a little bit of trouble, but it was now possible for her to practice her medical ninjutsu. It was weak, it was still a little sporadic, but it was.

Her mother was teaching her medical ninjustu. Fumiko still couldn't use it on patients; her chakra control wasn't nearly good enough, but she practiced all the time, on chakra-powered dummies and sometimes on herself- but she eventually stopped that when her entire right arm went numb and stayed that way for a full week.

The flow of injured shinobi began to slow as Suna wobbled back onto it's own two legs, supported suddenly by the economic boost from hundreds of extra missions. There was more money and supplies, so they didn't need to deploy as many shinobi, so there were more med-nins at the hospital, and as a result, healing tended to be more thorough and faster, which meant that there were more shinobi to be deployed...

There was an overall decrease in injuries.

This gave her more time to practice, something for which she was intensely grateful. Fumiko couldn't wait until a new Kazekage was chosen and everything could go back to normal, but it looked like that wouldn't be happening for a while yet.

Fumiko took a deep breath and raised her hands. She quickly formed a version of Ox best suited to her water-type chakra, then snapped them into a Tiger, moving to spread her palms over the white, stuffed dummy. Light green sparked across her skin.

"Just concentrate," her mother said.

"Medical Release: Mystical Palm Technique!"

...

Mai couldn't stop grinning after she heard the news.

"You're gonna be my sensei?"

"Only if you want me to be, little Mai."

"Stop calling me that!" she huffed. "And like I'd let your baka brother teach me. Man, he's really annoying. Besides, you're the only one I can think of that's strong enough to teach me anything I don't already know. Plus, you won't give me detention for falling asleep."

Gaara looked amused. "What about Temari?"

"Not interested." Mai said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "She's too weak- I could beat her easy."

"Mai, that isn't nice." Fumiko protested from where she was knelt on the living room floor, crouched over a dummy. Green light coated her hand, writhing and sparking wildly out of control every once in a while. Gaara didn't know a whole lot about medical jutsus, but he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do that.

"How are you even my sister?" Mai said in a mock-annoyed tone.

"If you were old enough, I would tell you." Fumiko said, fighting a smile. She yelped a little when her jutsu sparked rbightly and then completely died. She frowned at her hands. "Sugar.

Mai scowled. She hated it when people kept things from her, and she hated not knowing something even more."You always say that! Why can't you just teach me now?"

"Because you're not old enough yet. Trust me, you'll hate it when it starts."

"When what starts?"

"You'll know."

Mai opened her mouth to argue, and Gaara figured it would be best to diffuse the explosion before it could light.

"You know, if you want me to teach you, you have to call me sensei." Gaara reminded her.

Mai grinned from ear to ear at him in her feral way. "Of course... shorty-sensei."

...

After weeks of sorting through student application forms, confirmations of teachers and backups, specialization, and entrance exams, it was finally time to meet all of the students face to face in the open house.

Students milled about, excitedly picking there way through classrooms and the main arena, where they would be spending most of their time. Fumiko chatted with parents who got off work- they were nervous about the new senseis, would their kids be okay, what is the program like, etcetera, etcetera. Luckily Fumiko could answer all of these questions.

Well, she would hope so, considering she had worked closely enough with Gaara poring over school curriculums, average student abilities, previous curves and how they were achieved, as well as building structure as well as tons of weapons checks and supply paperwork, that she was profoundly considered by the general population as a co-founder.

A few of the students were worried about Gaara as well.

What about this, what about that, what if I do something wrong- will he, will he, will he...

Fumiko set them straight, parents and students alike, and then introduced them to Gaara, who explained that they wouldn't have to work with him if they didn't want to, unless they needed help with something he was specifically proficient at or knew about, along with student registration. This seemed to reassure them.

"So what do you think?" Fumiko asked brightly, gesturing to the bright arena.

She had been put in charge of decoration. Although that was only supposed to apply for the open house- streamers, balloons, and lights, which she had done- but Fumiko had taken it just a step farther and repainted the battered old arena so that it was now a light shade of pale green.

Paper lanterns seemed to float through the air like stars, attached to balloons grounded to the walls of the arena. They were handmade from colorful paper, sending shimmers of orange, green, red, and blue across the sand. Streamers formed the pictures of jutsu and flowers, seemingly random, but it all tied together in a messy sort of precision.

"It looks amazing, Fumiko." Gaara said, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I can't believe you had time for all this."

"If you had time to do all your ninja stuff and still set all this up..." Fumiko smiled. "It didn't take all that log. I think this is all going really smoothly. You're gonna make a great sensei, Gaara. These kids are super lucky."

"I still can't believe they're letting me teach."

Fumiko put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be good for you. You can interact with a whole lot of people at once, even if they are just kids. I'll be busy at the hospital anyway, and you know I'm training all the time now."

Gaara snorted. "'Even if they are just kids'? Fumiko, we're thirteen."

"That's what they keep telling me," Fumiko said with a laugh, and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. She smiled warmly at him, then reached out with one hand. Her fingertips rested against his scar. "But I don't think we are."


	30. The Academy Students

This wasn't part of the plan.

Get up, make breakfast, eat breakfast, check all of the supplies a fifteenth time to make sure all of the weapons and stuffs were accounted for and adequate, get dressed, go to the bathroom, and get to the Academy a half hour before it opened to get everything ready.

It would figure that last night would be the night that Fumiko accidentally fell asleep on a stayover and Gaara managed to rest- for way too long.

"Gaara! Wake up, get up!" Fumiko yelped as she rushed around the bedroom, trying to find him amongst the blankets and the pillows spread across the sandy floor. Of course they would make a pillow fort and have it collapse at a time like this...

She had woken up just seconds before, and knew by the light shining in through Gaara's window that it was too. late. They should have woken up hours before- and now they needed to condense their preparation time to about a half an hour.

"Hngh- what?" a sleepy voice asked a few feet away from a pile of blanket. "... Why'm I covered in a blanket for...?"

Fumiko whirled, nearly tripping over herself in the process of rushing to him. Quickly she pulled at the corner of Temari's spare blanket that she had lent them- yellow, but there was no time to think about that now- and uncovered an arm. She took a stab at the dark a few inches up and revealed a groggy, confused-looking pair of cerulean blue eyes.

"You're late!"

"For wha... Oh, damn it!" he rasped as the fog cleared.

"Up! Up, up! I'll make breakfast, but you need to wake up Kankuro and Temari!"

Gaara struggled to pull the blankets off, kicking his feet to untangle them. "Why do I have to wake them up?"

Fumiko couldn't help but laugh. "Because you can't make breakfast."

"... But... Kankuro..."

"You're gonna be late on your first day as a sensei!"

"Right! Going, going!"

Gaara stumbled to his feet, then tripped as his feet caught in the fleece. The sand swept up underneath him so that he landed sliding upside down. Cursing, he scrabbled around until he could slide off it onto his feet. Fumiko helped him off. The sand fell back to the ground with a splash, and Gaara hurried out the door.

Fumiko hobbled out the door, picking up her cloak off the dresser and pulling it around her neck on her way down the hall to the kitchen. Behind her, she could hear Gaara enlisting Temari's help three doors from his.

She slid the door to the kitchen open. Technically, it adjoined with the Kazekage's old room, but she was fairly certain that door hadn't been opened since the Konoha invasion.

Fumiko remembered years ago- before she knew exactly who it was that kept sending assassins after him- during stayovers when they would avoid the kitchen during certain times- don't go in there at three to four in the morning, Gaara had always said. That's when he gets breakfast before he goes to his office.

"Why are we avoiding him?"

"Just... just because, okay?"

"Because why?"

"I don't think it would be safe, alright?"

"Why wouldn't it be safe? He's your dad."

Gaara's eyes tightened a little at the edges. "He just... he's the Fourth Kazekage before he's my dad. It's better if you stayed away from him."

She shook out of her thoughts and opened the fridge. They needed to be fast today, so eggs and toast would probably be the best bet. Milk, eggs, bread, butter... the kitchen here was so well-stocked she could probably cook Christmas dinner early, so she didn't need to worry about not having anything.

As she cooked, she couldn't help but think about all of the craziness lately. Her night-slash-day shifts at the hospital had more or less stabilized, and she found that somewhere along the line she had stopped being a volunteer and actually become an employee. Now she worked afternoons- which meant she would have enough time to walk with the siblings to the Academy, then she would have to book it to the hospital.

"Got him up," someone muttered tiredly behind her. Fumiko smiled as she cracked eggs into a pan.

"Did you actually get him up, or did you just sic Temari on him?"

"... I sort of got him up. Then he fell back asleep." There was a low, rare Gaara laugh. "Then I set Temari at him."

...

Fumiko had hugged him quickly and then left for the hospital. Aside from his hospitalization after the chuunin exams and the three times he'd been a patient there during the mission craze, Gaara hadn't actually been at the hospital to see where she worked.

"I can't believe you both fell asleep!" Temari barked as they rushed through the arena entrance, arms full of sharp and dull blades and clubs and other various weapons. Gaara carried whatever they couldn't with his sand, but he was trying hard not to cut himself three hundred different ways.

Kankuro dropped his load on the line of tables in the center. The tools clattered across the wood table, a stray sword cutting a deep gouge into the imported oak.

"It never happens." Gaara muttered. "I don't know why today had to be the exception."

"We got... ten minutes maybe, before they start coming," Kankuro guessed. "C'mon, lets get this stuff up."

Gaara unloaded his arms first, then his cloud of sand. Walking through the village with so may weapons sticking off them every which way had attracted a fair amount of strange looks, but they had made it in time- Kankuro had choked on more than half of his food, Temari lost her hair ties and tore through the living hall looking for them, the shower picked the worst possible time to break, and Gaara had realized they were four weapons short (later they would find them under Kankuro's bed- he had no idea how they'd gotten there.)

All in all, it had been very stressful.

But it had all worked out.

They were rushing to organize the weapons without cutting their hands off, but it was still working out.

"Oh, just let me do it." Gaara commanded. When they backed off, he raised his hands out in front of him, and the sand raised out of his gourd and rushed out towards the tables, grabbing weapons from the four scattered piles and spreading them across the wood by order.

"I thought you said not to 'abuse your natural talents and work hard'." a voice laughed from behind them. Gaara jumped, and his sand dropped. He turned around and was met by a very familiar smirk.

"And I thought you told me getting places early was a waste of time."

Mai scoffed. "Whatever. You're the only cool teacher I've gotten so far."

"Hey!" Kankuro protested.

Temari just rolled her eyes. Gaara turned back around and lifted the sand again. "Sorry, little Mai, I can't argue right now. We're late as it is."

"Would you quit it with the little Mai stuff!" she growled. "Someday, I'm gonna be bigger than you, and don't you forget it!"

...

When the students finally started to trickle in, it was only seconds after they finished setting up. Mai, of course, had been absolutely no help, her excuse being that she didn't want to spoil the class before it started.

Now they stood on the opposite side of the table from the growing group of children, calmly watching over their arrival, like they had been waiting- when in actuality Gaara's sand had only just barely sucked back into his gourd before the first pack of four kids meandered inside.

"Before you begin combat training, you must first choose a weapon that suits you both physically and mentally." Temari began briskly as soon as Gaara counted the last student.

Mai was lost somewhere in the throng- unlike Gaara and Fumiko, when she was approached with disdain and teasing her reaction- rather than to stand on the edge of the group by herself- was to shove herself right into it and force people to pay attention.

There was a moment where the kids looked over the weapons, whispering and muttering softly to themselves. Then, someone raised their hand, and Temari nodded.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry." a young, reedy female voice piped. "But is it absolutely necessary that we all choose a weapon?"

Not choose a weapon? Gaara was surprised. In his experience, young children were always the first to pick up dangerous things with glee, daring each other to see who could make the deepest cuts in a wall.

"Huh?" Temari said in surprise.

"Uh, why do you ask?" Kankuro asked, not quite frowning. He sounded confused.

Gaara closed his eyes, pondering. A young girl, a Genin who didn't believe in fighting. It was familiar- after all, he had practically grown up with someone like that.

"If all of us have weapons, there's a chance we'll end up hurting each other." the girl said. "Someone could get killed."

He opened his eyes, opening his mouth to speak before Temari could snipe at her for being stupid. As a result, his words jumbled in his head before he could think them through. "Your weapon is like-"

Like your lifeline. Like a shield. A way to protect yourself- a weapon is a way to keep precious people alive.

But he couldn't speak, lips turning down in a displeased scowl as he tried to vocalize his thoughts. Gaara shook his head. Your weapon is like a warrior, he didn't say. A way to act with bravery enough to defend a village.

All that came out was an irritated sigh and, "Forget it; it's not important."

Temari and Kankuro glanced at each other. Gaara didn't blame him- that had almost sounded important until he'd dismissed it. Then they looked back at the girl.

"This isn't a game you're playing." Temari said at last.

"If you were to go into battle with that frame of mind, you wouldn't survive." Kankuro added. His new face paint design was still a little odd to look at, especially when he spoke. But his words were serious- in combat, you could not worry about hurting others. It would get you killed.

"Ah- I'm sorry."

"Hey, if you're gonna make Gaara mad by asking stupid questions like that, you're on your own." a boy with blond hair who thought Gaara couldn't hear them said. His tone was cold and disbelieving.

"For your combat training, you'll be working in a group with one of us," Kankuro explained. "You may choose which instructor you wanna work with."

"Gaara- would you smile already?" Temari sighed as the students began to murmur excitedly amongst themselves. Gaara hadn't even realized his face had been pulled into an intense almost frowning, thoughtful look. "Don't look so mean; lighten up, or no one will want to be in your group."

Gaara raised his head in an attempt to look less glowering. But he couldn't just smile- it would be like randomly jumping up and down.

It was awkward.

Still, he... Gaara wanted a student. At least one. One that wasn't Mai- whom he knew would wander straight to him.

The children spoke among themselves, mostly of Gaara. He caught bits of the conversation- My dad told me that Gaara was the village's ultimate weapon.

They say if he gets mad he could destroy the whole village.

He's scary- I don't want to go in his group.

A breath of air passed through his lips silently. Despite all his efforts, it seemed he hadn't quite broke through to the younger kids- some of the jonin and chuunin accepted him, some of the civilians liked him, but they hadn't passed the story on yet.

He was still... frightening.

"You're all idiots." Mai stated plainly. She marched out of the mass of students, and they parted around her like a plague. With good reason- crossing her usually ended in a brawl. There was still a bandage on her nose.

Gaara forced himself not to smile as she huffed over and stood next to him, crossing her arms.

They broke off one by one, then in a stream to their desired instructor. They went in pairs and triplets, groups of friends already staked out together, swarming Temari and Kankuro.

Kankuro had come a long way since loathing children of any kind. Now he was smiling, hands in his pockets as they surrounded him, like he was cool and they were his admirers- like he was a big brother.

Temari just smirked, hands on her hips, like pfft, I knew you'd all come crawling to me.

When all was said and done- and Mai was rearing to get a better look at the weapons- only one student remained. The one who'd asked after the tools, and she looked indecisive. She was probably just wondering whether or not she wanted to risk Temari's temper.

Gaara closed his eyes.

Just one student that trusted him. That was all he'd wanted.

"Don't worry about it, Gaara," Mai said gruffly. "Like I said before, they're all just a bunch of idiots who believe whatever their parents spout."

Gaara looked up as footsteps approached, blinking.

"Excuse me..." the girl from before said hesitantly. "Will you be my sensei?"

"Will you be my sensei?"

Just one.

"Are you sure you want that?" he asked quietly.

Her eyes were wide and unblinking as she stared up at him. "Please teach me!"

"Nice, kid." Mai said loudly, thumping her on the back. The girl stumbled a little. "Some actual backbone. Good to see."

...

Mai skidded around the tables, picking up anything and everything with a point. She didn't bother with the blunted ones or the clubs, so far as Gaara could tell. Ten years old- but utterly intense.

She picked up one of a set of two identical, two foot long tanto blades with simple leather grips on the handles. She pricked her thumb with the tip, nodded, then hefted the second one. In quick succession she swung them both, then spun.

Mai grinned, holding both swords up to eye level.

Gaara got the feeling he'd just witnessed the birth of something terrifying.

Glancing over, he realized that the only one not trying out a weapon was the young student. He made his way to her- she was staring at them, like they were evil. Stepping up beside her, he looked at her face.

"What's your name?" he asked.

She jumped- he had startled her- then turned to him. "It's Matsuri."

"Matsuri, you must choose a weapon."

Matsuri swallowed, then turned again to the weapons. For a long moment, she stared at a katana. Almost unconsciously, she began to reach for the smallest, least lethal-looking weapon- the Johyo. Gaara watched her curiously.

"What's wrong?"

Matsuri flinched. Then instinctively she grabbed up the closest thing to her- a club almost half her size, armored in steel and studded with spikes on the top half. Matsuri staggered under it's weight.

Gaara looked at her skeptically. "I want you to attack me with that," he said. "Attack like you want to kill me."

She struggled to hold it up, stumbling on her feet to remain standing. "Y-yes sir!" she managed, grunting as she tried to raise the club above her head. Then she shrieked as the weight became to much for her and she toppled backwards. The club skittered across the dirt. "-Ahh!"

"Beware a demon with an iron club..." Gaara mused as she sat up. "But that doesn't apply to you."

"Y-yes sir. Then which weapon do you think would be best for me?"

Gaara glanced over the two weapons on the table. The Johyo and the Katana. Judging from the way she'd cringed away from it's sheen like the blade was cursing at her, he figured it was a safe enough bet that it was some kind of trigger and would therefore be useless for her in battle.

He stepped up to the table and picked up the Johyo, holding it up to Matsuri as she stood.

"This is called the rope javelin," he said.

"I've never heard of it."

Gaara had had the sense to learn how to use all of the weapons they'd decided to use in the curriculum just in case he got students who wanted to know something about such an obscure weapon- and he had been right to do so.

Jumping a few yards back so he wouldn't stab her eye out on accident, he pulled the wire, lifting one knee for balance. He whipped out the handle, sending the wire into a flurry of spinning whirls around his head before it stabilized. He moved the spinning circle to the left, then the right. The high whine of flying wire buzzed in his ears.

"The sharp blade at the end of the rope is not made for offense," Gaara called as he shifted it to his far left again. He continued to move it from side to side, spinning it and spinning it, to keep it's momentum. "It's purpose is to keep enemies at a distance-" he raised it above his head- "-which allows you to use your rope to incapacitate the enemy!"

Kinetic force sent the blade whizzing through the air towards a wooden training post. There was a buzzing and then a snap as it whipped around the post and whipped around it like Kimimaru's spine blade. Gaara straightened and tugged on the wire. It held fast.

"You must practice until the rope becomes an extension of your body." he said, passing the handle of the Johyo to Matsuri, who stared down at it.

"Yes sir."

"Hey, shorty-sensei!" Mai yelled from the other side of the arena. "Am I holding these wrong or what?" There was a chorus of shh! from the other students as they tried to keep her from pissing him off. "Aw, shuddup. Bunch of cowards. Hey, Gaara!"

Gaara sighed and went to help her.

...

Matsuri was getting better and better at spinning the barbed rope above her head and building up deadly momentum. But she couldn't seem to make it wrap around her targets- it always bounced off.

Often times she stayed after classes had been dismissed, trying and trying to make it work when it wouldn't. Mai had simply ironed out a few kinks and became an immediate expert on all things Tanto.

Her shot deflected off the post and soared towards her, arcing back through the air. It buried itself safely in the dirt a few feet away, but Matsuri stared at it like it had stabbed her foot.

Gaara stepped forward when he realized she wasn't going to move- that trigger again. Gaara had linked it to that reflection- that kind of flash of light that burns itself into your mind's eye when a blade was pointed toward you.

He yanked once on the rope and the small blade tugged out of the dirt. Gaara easily caught it in one hand, holding it out as Matsuri looked up in surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"When I was young, I stood by helplessly as my parents were attacked by so many weapons. It's... just so hard now." the story was delivered tonelessly, like she'd rehearsed and repeated it a hundred times. Matsuri bowed her head.

Gaara looked over to the training posts, where Mai was viciously hacking away with her blades. From here, Gaara could see the wood chips flailing into the air around her.

"I need to get stronger."

"Why?"

Mai scowled. "Because Fumiko was right. I can't let them keep pushing me around like they do. If I get stronger, they'll either be afraid of me or respect me, I don't care which. As long as they stop insulting me!"

"That's not what Fumiko-"

"I know that's not what she meant, but it's what I intend to make out of it."

"Tell me... what is your reason for wielding a weapon?" Gaara asked. Matsuri blinked.

"Huh?"

"I remember..." he started.

Flashes of memory from his half-crazed transformation so many months ago- almost half a year. His vision obscured, demon outraged at Naruto's selfless dedication to his friends.

"Who are these two?" he had demanded. "Who are they to you?"

"Those guys are... they're my friends, that's what they are!" Naruto had yelled so defiantly. "And if you even think about hurting them any more than you already have, I promise I'll take you down!"

"I'll never forget his face when he said those words." Gaara breathed, staring up into the sky.

And then he turned and walked away.

...

"Mai, I know you think you've mastered these-"

"I have."

"But you should still practice other things just in case."

"I already know how to use other weapons, Shorty-sensei," Mai said breezily, waving a dismissive hand. "Kunai and shuriken and ninja wire, blah blah blah. I learned that stuff before you."

"That isn't what I'm talking about." Gaara was growing increasingly tired of Mai's improvised tease. "If you're ever in a situation where you have to use another type of weapon-"

"Maah, but who could disarm me?" she said with a high-tipping grin.

"Overconfidence will get you killed someday," Gaara sighed.

Mai glanced over his shoulder. "Maybe, but stupidity is gonna get that guy killed right now. He just challenged Temari and I'm pretty sure he pissed her off enough that she's taking it seriously."

"What?" Gaara whipped around just as Temari hefted her fan. At the last moment, the arrogant student seemed to realize what a mistake he had made. "Temari!"

...

"Aim is everything, Matsuri." he advised, straightening her arm. "You're only focusing at throwing it at the post, not aiming to trap it. That's why it keeps bouncing off like that."

"But, Gaara-sensei, where else am I supposed to aim?"

"Not at the post."

"But-!"

"Throw it at the post, Matsuri," he said. "But don't aim for it."

"I don't understand."

...

Gaara wasn't quite sure what was going on, but there was a sudden, pulsing crowd of cheering or flabbergasted students, all of them either laughing or yelling, "she really did it!" or "he actually went through with it!"

Kankuro was holding Mai and Eishi by their collars. "Whoa, guys, alright, no PDA here, okay?"

PDA? Mai?

Gaara wasn't quite sure he'd heard right. Carefully he threaded his way through the students to see better.

Mai had been writhing, trying to get away, but at that she barked out a laugh at the same time as her nose crinkled in disgust. "PDA? Eww, no. I hate that guy."

Eishi seemed dazed. His eyes were glazed over.

Kankuro raised an eyebrow at her. "Then why in the heck did you kiss him?"

"Because they dared me to." she answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It was gross, but nobody can say I won't do something."

"Riiight." Kankuro drawled. "They dared you."

"They did!" she scowled, crossing her arms. "Baka Kankuro."

"What was that, you little brat?"

"I said Baka Kankuro! Deal with it!"

"Why you little-!"

"Oh yeah? Come on, I can take you! Just try it!"

Gaara wasn't quite processing anymore. He was blinking rapidly, eyes narrowing as he tried to register what had just occurred.

Mai kissed Eishi.

Dare or not... Gaara looked up at the sky. For all he knew, Fumiko would start flinging around curses.

...

"She did what?"

"She kissed Eishi. On a dare."

"Ah. That makes more sense."

"What does?" Gaara shook his head hopelessly. "They hate each other's guts. Why in the world-"

"Mai doesn't really like backing down from challenges. Any challenge. Maybe it'll get her killed someday, but you have to give her credit for absolute stubbornness, you know?"

...

"Shut up!"

Kankuro grinned widely. Fumiko looked back and forth between them- all she had done was try to bring them snacks while they trained. Gaara hadn't been available, so Mai had dragged Kankuro kicking and thrashing instead. "But, Mai, I thought you said he was a good-"

"Shut up, baka Kankuro!"

"Stop calling me that!"

...

Fumiko blew a puff of air that ruffled her bangs. Then she smiled, and dropped her chin into her hands, staring out at the wide expanse of tan-yellow abode buildings. From here, in the kazekage's office, the spiral view of the village was absolutely incredible.

Going into the Kazekage's office had become a sort of taboo since his death. But when she had cracked the door open and seen disturbed clouds of dust and a smell like rotten fruit, Fumiko decided that the best thing she could do was probably clean it. Or, at least dispose of the grungy, fly-infested cut of steak decomposing on a plate on his desk.

She had pulled open the windows, coughing as the dust she disturbed with her duster and broom tried to suffocate her. Just moments ago, she had realized that the Kazekage had one of the best views. The room was spanned with a row of windows. They were small windows- the people of Suna had a thing about personal pleasures- but it was still beautiful.

She got to work with the vacuum. If she got all of the dust out, then she could focus on cleaning the windows and the desk without choking. Vacuuming had always been awkward for her, considering that Fumiko had a hard time backing up without falling on her butt, but she always managed.

Gaara was still out at the Academy working with Matsuri. Most of the time, she stayed behind. Ordinarily, Mai did as well, but Fumiko had seen her through the window as she made her way home from the training grounds. Temari and Kankuro had gotten back some time ago, but Fumiko didn't think it was okay yet to ask them to help with this.

Gaara might not have viewed the Fourth Kazekage as anything more than a towering shadow, something to be feared and carefully monitored, but Temari and Kankuro had seen him as the father Gaara never could. She'd seen them before during all her visits to the Tower, talking and laughing together.

Gaara had never looked their way.

The drone of the vacuum eventually became just white noise in the back of her mind. She hummed to herself, smiling and trying not to suck in the corners of the carpet, and watching as the carpet turned from a filmy gray to an unusual dark brownish-purple.

It was a nice office. Fumiko had never been in here before- for good reason. She could've been arrested by Jonin for trespassing and sent to T&I. But now that there was no one here... well, now the technical owners of the room were the Fourth Kazekage's children. which meant that her capture was very unlikely.

Besides... all she was doing was cleaning. She didn't disturb the towers of papers scrambled across the wood, or the scrolls leaned against the wall by the doorjamb. It was respectful.

With a flick of her thumb she switched it off, expecting a overwhelming silence as she reached up to wipe her brow. But to Fumiko's surprise, there was another type of buzz: the sound of children trying to get attention.

"Hello! Hello! Kankuro-sensei!"

"Hey, open up!"

"Kankuro-senseeeiii!"

The voices were faint- Kankuro's room was on the level below this one. But she could hear them through the floor.

Knowing Kankuro, he was either ignoring them, or he was in the kitchen pillaging for snacks and those kids were barking up the wrong tree. Fumiko laughed and clicked the vacuum into a standing position before hobbling out the door and closing it securely behind her.

The voices grew louder as she made her way down the stairs. Fumiko gripped the handrails; foot, prosthetic, foot, prosthetic, a steady careful mantra that had saved her from many a tumbling fall.

When Fumiko peeked out from around the corner, she realized there were three of them- two boys and a girl, all of them pushing to knock on his door and clamouring for his attention.

"Hello," she greeted, and they jumped.

"Ah! Fumiko-san!" the girl said.

Fumiko grinned. "You know who I am already?"

"Kankuro-sensei and Temari talk about you all the time," one boy answered. "It gets really annoying. Matsuri says Gaara does too."

"Excuse me, miss..." the other boy said timidly, twisting his fingers together nervously. "Would you happen to know where Kankuro-sensei is? He promised to help us today, but he never showed up at the training fields..."

Fumiko laughed. "Kankuro? He probably forgot. Come on- let's go see if we can find him."

As they walked, Fumiko could feel them staring at her prosthetic. She supposed her walk was fairly interesting, a kind of step-drag-limp combination not usually found in nature. She would probably stare too.

He was either in his room, in the kitchen, or hanging out in Temari's room. Obviously he wasn't in his room- all that racket would have driven him absolutely up the wall. Fumiko stopped by Temari's room, knocking on the door.

"Te-mar-ee," she sang. "Is Kankuro in there?"

This was followed by a chorus of, "Yeah, is he in there?"

There was a muffled thump from inside, then a shuffling of footsteps. When the door finally slid open, Temari quirked an eyebrow.

"I thought you were doing something somewhere," she muttered tiredly. In her free hand she was clutching a steaming cup of something brown- probably coffee. Fumiko wondered if she'd been up all night reading again.

"I was, but then I found these guys looking for Kankuro. He's supposed to help them train."

"Idiot," she sighed. "I don't know where he is. I swear he's just like a little kid sometimes. He's probably eating or something. Didn't you leave something-or-other cake in the fridge yesterday?"

Three small sets of ears perked up instantly.

"Cake?"

"What kind of cake?"

"Kankuro-sensei's gonna eat it all!"

Fumiko's grin twitched even wider. Oh, yeah- these kids acted a lot like Mai.

She nodded at Temari. "That's what I thought. I was just making sure." Fumiko dropped a hand on the girl's head, who muffled out a 'hey!'. "I'm sure there's some left for you guys if you want some."

"Yes!"

"Cool!"

"Okay," the girl agreed.

She bent down so that she was at their eye-level.

"Go down the hall," she said, pointing, "and open the fourth door from the end on the right side."

They took off at a child's Mach ten speed, hollering down the hallway with noise she hadn't heard since she, Gaara, and the other two Sand Siblings were small, and children basically ran the Tower.

She didn't mind it.

Without another word, Temari slammed the door shut again.

From the kitchen, she heard a familiar yell. "Back off, you brats!"

...

"She's trying so hard," Gaara said, tapping his pen against the wall absently. "But she just can't seem to make it work for her."

"The Johyo is a hard thing to use," Fumiko agreed, plopping down onto her back on the bed beside him. "Remember when I tried to use it? I nearly killed that random Chuunin."

"I know she can." Gaara shook his head. "But I think it scares her."

Fumiko tilted her head curiously to look at him. Gaara's eyes were distant, pen tapping out a steady rap- rap- rap. "Scared of what?"

"She told me why. She's an orphan; Matsuri watched her parents get struck down. I think that's why she does better after dark- her weapons don't glimmer as much."

"Sugar, that's terrible!" Fumiko sat up. "No wonder she can't use weapons. Poor thing."

Gaara smiled. "She's actually quite a bit like you. Only... quieter."

"Oh, no," Fumiko said playfully. "Not another one! What are you gonna do then, if she can't let herself let it go? The Johyo is probably the only thing she could use."

"I'm not sure. I'll figure it out, though."

"Gaara-sensei, huh?" Here Fumiko smiled, looking up at the shooting stars on the ceiling. "I think it's fitting. I told you it would be good for you. Kids are- different from adults. If they're not influenced... they're not judgmental."

"Oh, they're judgmental, all right." Gaara smiled back. "So far you're the only person I've met who isn't. The rest of them are scared of me. But Matsuri... she never learned to be afraid."

...

Fumiko hadn't yet met this Matsuri, or any of the other students that Kankuro and Temari talked about.

So, she had decided, why not make food and surprise them while they were training?

Now they were swarming around her, grabbing for the tin plate in her arms while she tried not to trip and land on them. The cookies were disappearing fast. Somewhere, she could hear my and Kankuro laughing, while Temari tried to maintain order.

"Aw thanks, you're the best!"

"Kankuro-sensei was right, these are awesome!"

"Outta my way!"

"Careful, you're gonna knock her over!"

"Ooh, I want chocolate chip!"

"Oh, woah, just try to take one!" Fumiko squeaked.

...

Kankuro smirked as the kids played. Now that all their faces were smudged with chocolate, it was impossible to train, so today was more of a 'play with the Fumiko' kind of day.

Not that she seemed to mind. They were absolutely in love with her after just a few hours, and her infectious laugh was starting to spread like wildfire through the arena.

Kankuro shook his head. Two weeks in, and he still couldn't get some of them to listen to him. But Fumiko, within just a day, had them all standing around her, listening intently to every story she told and cheering when she announced games of tag- which she was terrible at- and hide and seek- which she was also terrible at (but really, who the hell challenged ninja-in-training to a game of hide-and-seek?)

Mai just lounged with Temari and him as they put away all the weapons for the students who weren't able or allowed to take them home. Gaara was standing a few feet away, watching the chaos with a dorky little smile on his face.

"How much do you wanna bet they're all complaining tomorrow?" Mai drawled.

"Not taking that," Kankuro muttered.

"I think they like her, huh, Kankuro?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Aww, is baka Kankuro jealous?"

Kankuro opened his mouth to retort, arms balanced with two swords and a club, but Temari beat him to it,, closing her cupboard and snapping the lock on.

"Mai, why do you have to antagonize him all the time?" Temari sighed. "All he does is rant about it later, and I have to listen to it."

"Oh?" she said, grinning, and raising her eyebrows at him. Kankuro sighed irritably.

"Temari!" he growled.

Mai just continued grinning, flipping the kunai carelessly up and down, catching it, like a civilian student might do with a pencil. "So it does piss you off. And here I thought you were more mature than a brat."

"Brat."

She snickered. "Original."

"How old are you, anyway?" he snapped, locking his cupboard.

"Old enough." The kunai spun through the air again. Mai's dark black hair curled like a wet porcupine's spines, but she never seemed to mind it- in fact, she generally preferred to allow it to spring all over the place rather than deal with it. She acted a heck of a lot like an Inuzuka he had met in Konoha.

She certainly didn't act ten.

"Old enough? For what?"

"Old enough to kick your ass."

"Why you-!"

"Mai!" Temari hissed in exasperation. "Kankuro, just calm down. She's nine."

"I'm ten!"

"Gaara, Gaara!" Fumiko laughed. "Come on and help me!"

Kankuro glanced back over his shoulder. Somehow the game of tag had morphed into a game of dodgeball- except they were using wooden target balls, and Fumiko was getting rained on.

Mai laughed. "Run, Fumiko!"

One thing Kankuro knew for certain: both of these Mitsuwa girls were freaks.

But at least one of them wasn't so bad.


	31. Dangerous Strangers

Fumiko supposed that perhaps she should have been paying attention to where she was going. But she had been focused on not tripping on the sand- in general, she spent most of her time walking staring at the ground in concentration. Besides, usually the villagers of Suna had always taken pains to avoid both her and Gaara on the streets, so she hadn't ever had that problem until recently.

But this boy... girl? Didn't really look like a Suna civilian.

His/her hair, for instance, was an unusually prominent shade of sky-blue- one of Fumiko's all time favorite colors, so that caught her interest immediately. Secondly, his/her eyes were a startling green color, like a forest itself had been condensed into a few spoonfuls of pure organic matter. He/she also had no pupils.

Fumiko processed all of this in the time it took her to flail backwards onto her butt, The other person barely even flinched, steadying him/herself instantly. Fumiko's things scattered around her, a strange collection of paper and medical texts and one stray stabilization seal she had been tampering with earlier.

"Ak!" she blurted. "Sorry!"

"It's all right," he said. And it was a he- his voice was low, almost naval like he was sick or something. But he couldn't be any older than Fumiko herself, a teenager at most.

He extended a hand to help her to her feet after she scrambled to catch her papers before the sandy air swept them away. The pile in her arms, sadly, was just as disorganized after the fall as it was before, only now there was sand between the pages of her books.

"I should look where I'm going more," she said apologetically but smiling widely as he hauled her to her feet. "But it's kinda hard to balance on sand dunes."

"I have had the same problem," he said. "It's easy to trip up on the sand. It doesn't stay still."

"I would suggest keeping your eye on it so it doesn't move under your feet or trip you but..." Fumiko laughed. "Look how far that got me! Hi, I'm Fumiko. I've never seen you here before... are you visiting Suna?"

"... Yes." he said with a deliberate smile. "And it's nice to meet you. My name is Ryuugan."

"Are you a shinobi? I don't see a headband anywhere. It's unusual for a villager to visit a new hidden village, especially Suna." she giggled again, hefting her load. "People tend to find the miles of scorching sand around us off-putting."

"Not at all." he answered easily. "I am a shinobi, from a village far away from here. I'm here on an... escort mission. I simply left my hitai-ate at the hotel I'm staying at." Ryuugan raised an eyebrow slightly, but he was still smiling softly. "The people here aren't very welcoming to strangers."

"Ha ha ha, that can be true. Hey, do you want sugar or something? I always have it with me!"

"No, thank you." he glanced down, and his eyebrows creased. "May I ask what happened to you?"

"Oh! You mean my prosthetic?" Fumiko shifted the weight to one side to glance down at it. A little sandy and beat up, now, but it still looked nice, and the colors were vibrant. "Explosive tags."

"Explosive tags?" his voice was curious. "On a villager?"

"Ne, but I can't really tell you why." Fumiko said. Although Gaara had told her by now she was allowed to tell people- he was accepted by the general public and they seemed to have forgotten about the whole incident- she didn't feel entirely comfortable telling a stranger.

Even if he was nice.

"Do you happen to know who Sabaku no Gaara is?" he asked. "I'm embarrassed, but a friend of mine admires his strength. We've heard a lot about him in our village. I was supposed to ask him something... but I sort of forgot what he looked like!" Ryuugan laughed.

"Gaara!" Fumiko grinned wide. "Sure I know who he is. He's my best friend after all. Do you know where the Academy is?" She tried to point, lifting one pinky from her burden. "He's a sensei there. Although..." Fumiko hmm'd in thought. "If he doesn't know you're coming, I don't think he'll talk to you much."

"Oh, that's fine. I was going to send him a message to let him know I'm here." He glanced at her now stumbling feet. The sand stung at her ankles, and standing in one place while trying to keep her balance was proving difficult. "Do you need help carrying any of that?"

"No, that's okay. I was just heading home."

Fumiko had just gotten off her shift at the hospital. She wanted to study a little more on the nervous system and how everything had worked, but the only texts she had access to as a non-ninja in the archives was basically, 'The nervous system is a function of the body' and that wasn't helpful at all, so she borrowed some from her work.

But she had other things to carry anyway, paperwork to fill out, seals to copy for the hospital supply. And the thing about medical texts was that they tended to be very, very, heavy.

She really needed to start bringing a bag or something. Like a backpack. Man, she hadn't used a backpack since her school days...

"It's really no trouble," Ryuugan said politely, and promptly swept half of her belongings out of her arms. Fumiko suddenly found it easier to stand. "Where is your home?"

Fumiko was so startled that she blinked once before she burst out laughing. She pointed down the street. "That way."

...

Matsuri was improving.

She still couldn't wrap the Dohjo around the post.

But she was improving.

She never seemed to want to quit. The weapons scared her, Gaara could tell, but she wanted to master them so badly that she just kept trying and trying and trying. The glint of blades didn't seem to affect her nearly as much as it had in the beginning- she no longer had episodes where she would simply stand frozen.

"Remember, Matsuri-" he started.

"Throw it at the post, but don't aim for it!" Mai said in a sing-song voice.

"Yes, sir."

...

"Good luck with your studying," Ryuugan said as he made to leave.

"Good luck with your mission!" Fumiko said cheerily as she deposited her half of the load onto her kitchen table. There was nobody home yet- most likely, Mai would just be heading back from the arena, her father was out working, and she knew her mom was still at the hospital. "Ne, Ryuugan, if you do see Gaara today, will you tell him hi for me? I haven't been able to see him all day, and I don't think I'll be able to."

Something like amusement flashed through his eyes, but before she could even blink, it was gone. "... Of course."

"And thank you for helping!" Fumiko smiled. "Are you sure you don't want something to eat? We have plenty of sweets in the kitchen-"

"No, thank you." Ryuugan glanced up at the clock. "I have to go now. I'm supposed to meet with my other teammates."

"Ooh, then don't let me keep you waiting! Bye, Ryuugan!"

Ryuugan flashed her one more odd smile before disappearing through the doorway. It closed with a forceful thunk.

...

"Matsuri," Gaara said at last. Even Mai had left by now. "I need to leave."

She glanced over at him, eyes distracted. The blade was partially imbedded into the training post, although it shifted like it was about to fall. Matsuri gripped the handle so tightly her fingers were a solid white. "That's fine, Gaara-sensei. May I train a little longer?"

Gaara hesitated. It was still daylight for hours yet- and they never really locked the arena, just the cabinets with the weapons. It was one of the only training areas in the wasted desert that was Suna, unless you wanted to train outside the walls. And Matsuri always brought her Dohjo home with her, anyway, it wasn't like Gaara needed to lock it up.

"Okay," he agreed. "But, Matsuri, do not stay too late."

"Yes sir." she said respectfully, then turned back to her training, yanking on the handle so the blade came out of the wood. She rolled it back up neatly and prepared to throw it again.

Gaara turned to leave. He was tired, and really, he just wanted to go straight to the Tower and try to rest. Fumiko would just be getting out of the hospital, so she would be heading to her home as well. No stayovers tonight- they both had work to do. It would be a while before either of them retired for the night.

Well, he wouldn't disturb her.

...

"That's Gaara." one of Ryuugan's teammates said just as he arrived. "He's the one we're after."

"Ryuugan. You're late."

Ryuugan smiled coldly. "Sorry. She was slower than I expected."

"Well?"

Below them, their target was preparing to leave, but his student continued to fail at using her weapon of choice. The Dohjo- Ryuugan wanted to laugh. What a pitiful weapon.

"Gaara really is a sensei here. Judging by her absolutely endless blabbering, they're very, very close. But she lives rather far into the city- it would be hard to escape easily."

"If they're as close as you describe, then she would be a valuable target."

"So, do we take her?"

"I'm not sure that would be wise right now. It's risky- we need to be careful not to trigger his biju into transforming before he can be contained. That would be disastrous. Besides, I've heard that this Gaara kid can be rather... unstable."

"Well. What would you suggest, then?"

"What about- that little one? His student."

"Will that be enough?"

"Our warning will be clear enough. If he doesn't come, then we'll take the cripple."

...

Gaara froze mid step in the middle of the empty side-street. His eyes narrowed.

"It's a good thing you showed up, Gaara," Kankuro said grimly from his position kneeled on the dirt, holding a fallen Suna chuunin by the shoulders. The man was badly injured. "We were just coming to get you."

Temari stood close by. Her face was hard and unreadable, which meant she was either nervous or overwhelmed, or both. "One of the ninja patrols was attacked by somebody."

The chuunin's eyes were wide. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. "They had strange weapons," he said. "And they referred to themselves as the Four Celestials."

The Four Celestials? Gaara's eyes narrowed even further. He'd heard nothing about any such group by that name. But if they had managed to take out an entire patrol, who were specifically chosen for their abilities... then how had he never heard the name?

Usually a powerful group of any sort, by defection or no, were known at least in passing by way of bingo books and way of mouth. Perhaps they were a newly formed band of missing-nin- in which case Gaara might be able to identify them as individuals. His mind whirred.

But the chuunin wasn't finished. "They said to tell Gaara... tell him that they know he's the ultimate weapon. And that they issue him a challenge."

Gaara brows drew together with confusion and he shifted backwards. The ultimate weapon? Obviously they were referring to the tailed beast Shukaku but... why? And if they knew he contained a Biju demon inside him... why would they want to fight him for no reason?

It didn't make any sense. But perhaps they were powerful- powerful enough to take out an entire patrol without raising any alarms until now. He almost opened his mouth, thinking to say, when did this happen?

But the injured shinobi continued to talk, and as he did, Gaara felt ice water wash through his veins.

"If you don't accept the challenge, they'll take someone close to you. They'll keep taking one person a day... until everyone you care about is gone."

Gaara's lips parted, breath leaving him suddenly and violently. His eyes widened. He couldn't breath. Kankuro and Temari's expressions didn't change at all.

Fumiko.

Gaara didn't think about it and he didn't care. He just ran, turning on one foot and vanishing to the human eye.

He could hear his siblings calling out after him in surprise, telling him to wait, but the rushing in his ears slurred their words until it was all just background noise to him. They could wait.

They could all wait.

Gaara didn't run very often. He hardly needed to- running away was never really necessary, and the times for urgency were few and far between. But now he was running, and he was flying into civilians, and he jumped to run along the rooftops instead.

Fumiko most likely was at her house. But there was a chance... a chance she was still at the hospital. Which way should I go? he thought frantically. The hospital is closer but if I wait even a second too long and she's at her house...

Would they? Would she? Was he too late?

...

Fumiko stretched her arms above her head with a sigh. On the table in front of her, her text lay open, the well-thumbed pages fluttering slightly from the open window. Tiny Japanese words were crammed onto the page, so it almost hurt her eyes to read it. But it was interesting.

Mai had gotten back an hour ago. Fumiko could hear her in her room, whaling away at her punching bag. Thump- thump- wham! Thump- thump- wham!

The sound was muffled, but it was rhythmic and made her sleepy. She stretched again and then settled her head on her arms, closing her eyes. Maybe she could take a quick nap, right here on the medical text, just for a few minutes...

There was a crash like the end of the world from the hall. Fumiko jumped a mile, shocked fully awake and already struggling to stand, trying to pull her legs out from under the table without tripping over the legs of the chair.

What was it? Who was it?

The front door, she realized just as she heard Mai shout something in irritation and surprise from her bedroom. The beating of her fists on cloth had stopped. Fumiko's heart pounded, adrenaline spiked to the breaking point- a loud noise was startling enough, but a loud noise in an almost dead silence while you're half asleep was a totally different matter.

Fumiko hobbled into the hallway just in time to nearly get bowled over.

"What the- Gaara?" she yelped as he caught her instinctively. His face was hard, ragged, painful for just one second before it suddenly crumpled into relief. The hardness was still there in his pursed lips and narrowed eyes, but he was relieved.

"Fumiko," she heard him gasp, and then he was hugging her.

Fumiko's brain struggled to keep up. What-the-sugar-was-that-noise slowly morphed into what-the-sugar-happened-to-Gaara. She half-returned the hug, crushed like she was, wondering what was going on.

"What the hell was-" Mai barked from the family room. "Gaara?"

"Kankuro. Temari. Mai. You." he muttered, seemingly oblivious. "Where's Mrs. Mitsuwa?"

"The hospital?" Fumiko squeaked. "I mean uh, she's at the hospital still. Gaara, what's wrong? What happened?"

Gaara sighed. The breath of air puffed past Fumiko's ear. "The hospital is too full of people to be a target."

"What are you doing?" Mai said, disbelief coloring her usually snarky tone. "What'd you do, break our door down? It was unlocked, you know!"

Glancing up, Fumiko concluded that the door at the end of the hall wasn't actually broken.

But the wall next to it where the doorknob had crushed into it was; dented in and cracked like someone had punched it with chakra. Carefully, Fumiko pulled away, but Gaara kept and almost painfully tight grip on her shoulders. For once there were so many emotions in his eyes that she couldn't even begin to read them.

"Gaara-?"

"Matsuri. I need to find Matsuri."

"What?"

"Matsuri," Gaara repeated.

"Gaara, hey, you're acting crazy." Mai said. "What the hell is wrong with you, anyway? First you come barging in here like a friggin' bull and break our house, then you practically strangle my sister, and now I can't even understand your words. What about Matsuri?"

"Someone attacked one of our patrols."

"Somebody did what now?"

Gaara seemed to compose himself. His iron grip loosened a bit, and Fumiko ignored the throbbing on her arms. "They called themselves the Four Celestials. They completely obliterated an entire patrol except for one person."

"How?" Mai demanded. "When? Why?"

"He was injured," Gaara said by way of explanation. "And I left before he could finish his tale. I'm not sure when it happened, but it must have been within the hour, because there weren't any alarms from the other patrols. And... they wanted to challenge me."

Mai barked, a cross between a snort and a disbelieving laugh. "Challenge you? Why in the name of the First would anybody want to challenge you?"

"What about Matsuri?" Fumiko said.

"I'll explain on the way. Come on. You too, Mai."

...

"They said what?" Mai growled. Her foot smacked soundlessly against the edge of a roof. They all three of them soared over the few feet of space, Gaara helping Fumiko- since jumping wasn't really her thing at all- and Mai on her own, Tanto blades strapped to either side of her waist. "That's so low I can't even curse about it. So that's why you flipped out so bad."

"Gaara, that's awful." Fumiko said, chewing her bottom lip.

'Yeah." he said quietly. "If they left that one sentry behind, it was more likely to explain a disappearance rather than be an actual warning. They would have been in the village by then. I had to check."

"And you think Matsuri could be a target?" Mai shifted her weight so that she skidded off another roof and into the wall of the house beside it in a sharp right turn, springing off it like a cat. Fumiko grunted as she jolted to the side as Gaara did the same.

"How many people could they possibly go after?"

Mai's face was grim.

"But Matsuri's only a student!" Fumiko protested. "Why-"

"I doubt they care about age or innocence, Fumiko." Gaara said. "People like that usually don't."

"But..."

"Gaara!" Kankuro's voice called.

On Gaara's left, Temari dropped down and hit the ground running. On Mai's right, Kankuro appeared. Both of them looked slightly out of breath, like they had been running all over the village- and after the story Gaara had told them, Fumiko didn't doubt that they had been.

"You found them?" Temari said. Her head blurred as she nodded at top speed, at least to Fumiko's eyes. "Good. What about-?"

"We're going to find Matsuri now!" Mai yelled over the wind. Her voice was tight.

Fumiko knew that Mai (although she constantly complained about her classmate's lack of self-confidence and spine) had grown close to Matsuri as they trained together. In a way, they balanced each other out- Mai knew when to start a fight, and Matsuri knew when to stop it. Mai had been coming home with less bruises and split lips lately, and according to Gaara, Matsuri had become more bold.

They jumped high to avoid the entrance all together and came to an abrupt halt inside the arena. Fumiko stumbled slightly, but Gaara set her easily on her feet.

Splayed out across the thin sand was Matsuri's Dohjo, tangled and flopped like it had been tossed haphazardly to the ground. Matsuri herself, however, was nowhere in sight. Fumiko blinked at it, eyes tracking the pattern and drawing her attention to the tip, which pointed to the back entrance. Gaara glanced at her.

Temari stepped forward, voice tinged with confusion and irritation. "What's this doing here?"

"Wait." Gaara put out a hand to stop her. "Look. They must be heading northeast."

Fumiko worried her lip between her teeth even more. Gaara's voice sounded so tired, like it did when he finally tried to lie down after a few weeks only to realize that he was far from done with whatever work he had. It was so, so sad, because he had been so, so happy just days before.

"Matsuri was the first to go." Kankuro said, voice a sigh.

"But you know as well as I do that Matsuri means nothing to the Four Celestials." Temari said quietly to Gaara. They want you-"

"So what, you're calling them by their stupid name now?" Mai said suddenly. Fumiko looked up. Mai's fists were clenched, lips curled in a snarl, brown eyes trained on the weapon. "'The Four Celestials' like they're some kind of threat now?"

Kankuro stood. "Mai, I know you're mad, but-"

"Mad?" Mai repeated. "Mad? Nope. I'm not mad." She looked up, and now her eyes were hard and glinting. "I'm pissed. Don't call them that. Kidnapping Matsuri doesn't make them worthy of respect."

Temari stiffened. "I wasn't respecting them!"

"Oh, yeah?" Mai glared. "Kankuro, what was it you called me before you realized I could land a hit to your big mouth?"

"Um..." Despite himself, Kankuro's lips twitched. "Brat."

"And what do you call me now?"

"Brat."

Mai whirled on him, muscles coiled like springs. "Baka Kankuro!"

Temari pursed her lips. Fumiko understood where Mai was coming from- it was like being called 'Fumiko' instead of 'Lead foot'. It was respectful. Or at the very least, it was acknowledging. 'Four Celestials' was spoken like a name, rather than 'band of criminals.'

"Mai." Gaara said, straightening.

Mai quieted instantly. Something seemed to pass between them.

Gaara wound the Dohjo back up. It made a small zipping sound, something that Fumiko was familiar with by now.

"We need to inform the Jounin," Kankuro said. All traces of humor had vanished from his face, leaving only a mask that could have belonged to the Crow. Fumiko raised her hands, shuffling forward a step.

"I want to come too," Fumiko said as she realized they were about to leave. "You're going to the tower, right?"

"Kankuro, Temari, what happened to the sentry?" Gaara asked.

"He's already at the tower, giving a report, I think," Kankuro answered. "His injuries are minor."

"Oh, you're coming all right," Mai said. "For the first thing, Gaara won't let you around on your own around now- and he doesn't particularly trust very many people- don't deny it, Gaara, you know you don't- and for the second, I'm not letting you go around on your own, and I pretty much dislike everyone in this village."

...

The council of elders was a lot less regal than Fumiko had been taught to think of it as. They were self-oriented, yes, and they sat up straight and steepled their fingers when they asked questions, but they were rushed, and obviously most of them hadn't been at the tower a few hours ago.

Fumiko, despite Gaara's ten-second rundown of the situation, had been filled in on a lot more pieces of the big picture- the attack on the patrol, the details on the weapons the Four Celestials used and the deaths. She also learned of their descriptions.

Hearing about the deaths was bad enough. Being worried about Matsuri was bad enough.

But realizing she had actually seen one of those people before the attack... well, it threw her for a loop.

"Wait. Did you say he had blue hair and green eyes?" she blurted.

An elder gave her a funny look. "Yes. Now moving on-"

"And he was wearing a white scarf, a cut off top, and kinda poofy pants?" she yelped, gesturing toward her legs with her hands. "Hard to tell at first if it was a boy or a girl?"

"We already told you this."

Fumiko stumbled a step back in surprise.

"What is it?" Gaara asked in his quietly urgent voice.

"Ryuugan," she said. Blood bloomed onto her tongue. "His name is Ryuugan. We bumped into each other on the street today."

Ryuugan was a bad guy? But he had seemed so nice, Fumiko hadn't thought twice about trusting him. Helping her up, walking her home, chatting with her about this and that and... Gaara. Fumiko's eyes widened. Come to think of it... he'd asked a lot about Gaara.

"You what?" Gaara said dully. "You what?"

His eyes shivered.

"He was asking about you... Kami. I didn't know! He was super sweet and nice and he helped me carry my stuff home!"

"Gaara, chill out." Kankuro hissed. The elders were staring now, murmuring amongst themselves quietly. "Nothing came of it."

"We need to discuss this," an elder said in a papery thin voice.

Apparently that was some sort of cue, because immediately Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, and Mai nodded stiffly and made to leave. Fumiko followed quickly behind them when she realized everyone was staring at them, barely having time to blurt out something polite before Baki closed the door behind them and they found themselves in an empty hall.

"You were alone with one of them?" Gaara asked immediately.

"Yeah," she answered just as quickly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I don't... maybe he didn't know, Gaara. He might have just been getting supplies or something and run into me along the way."

"No," Mai said clearly. "That was tactics. That was for intimidation or scouting, or maybe both."

Gaara was just silent.

"I thought you didn't like reading textbooks." Kankuro said baitingly. "Those tactics come straight from them."

Mai waved her hand dismissively. "I read sometimes," she said, scowling. "The things I can't learn about on my own. But even so- look at Gaara. He's white. That's exactly what they want and it's pissing me off even more now that it's working."

"Mai's right, Gaara," Temari said tersely.

"It's okay." Fumiko murmured.

"I can't believe..." Gaara's voice wasn't angry. It was puzzled, almost, puzzled and hurt. His teeth bared.

The door slid open again.

...

"They have identified themselves as the Four Celestials," Baki finished. The other council members nodded. "And they've headed to the northeast, to a small strip of land between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire. It's near the leaf village, so I've asked them to assist us in this." Baki turned his head towards them- they were all standing in the doorway.

"Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, you are to leave immediately and track these criminals down."

Fumiko didn't doubt that Gaara would go, which of course would mean that the other two Sand Siblings would go as well. Fumiko could tell Mai was agry about being left out, but she wasn't even a Genin yet. She knew that too, but it didn't stop her from pursing her lips.

Gaara turned on his heel to leave. But Kankuro tensed.

"That doesn't make any sense," he argued. His eyes were wide and angry. "They've already told us that they're after Gaara- if he comes with us, it would be like walking right into their trap!"

"He's right," Temari exclaimed. "It makes more sense to send another unit."

Baki's eyes flickered. "This might just be a diversionary tactic," he said, but Fumiko was better at reading people than at thinking of battle strategies. Something was off. "If we sent an entire unit, the village would be vulnerable."

"In that case then, why don't you come along with us?" Kankuro pointed an accusatory finger at his former sensei. "Well? ... Are you coming?"

Baki looked away, fixing his eyes on a certain point above Kankuro's head. "Sorry, but I'm afraid there's another mission that requires my attention." he said. "Go. After all, the captive is your student."

"Hold on a-!" Mai started, but Temari shushed her before she could curse in front of the Council of elders.

Kankuro seemed to growl. Fumiko frowned. "That's bitter," she said. "Matsuri's a person like you."

Gaara just motioned his head and stepped out of the room, leaving the elders staring after him. Fumiko followed, and after a moment's hesitation, so did the others. Kankuro grumbled to himself the entire way down. Temari and Mai conversed in hushed tones.

Fumiko fell into step beside Gaara. "Just give me a few minutes to get ready, and I'll come with you guys. All of my traveling stuff is in your room, anyway-"

"No, Fumiko."

"What do you mean, 'no'?" she protested. "I know Matsuri too! And these guys are after you!"

"This isn't just a competition, Fumiko," he said gruffly, but the meaning was soft. Still, Fumiko balked at the idea of being left behind. "This will be a real fight, most likely to the death."

"I've seen those. Besides, you'll win!"

"Exactly. So you don't need to be there."

Fumiko stared at him, footsteps hiccupping for a moment before she fell back into the flow. He was being uncharacteristically harsh, and she wondered what was bothering him so much- he was almost never harsh with her. Gaara's face was stony, but his eyes were conflicted as he stared straight ahead into the hall. Something had seriously upset him- but under the circumstances, it was impossible to tell what.

Everybody branched off. Kankuro, Temari, Gaara and Fumiko to their rooms for last second packing, and Mai... well, probably to go to the training grounds, smolder, and cut up cloth dummies with her Tanto blades.

Gaara didn't immediately do anything, just suddenly froze in the middle of his room. Fumiko, used to this, flowed in behind him and past him to his dresser. In the bottom racks was his ninja tools, things he never used but brought anyway. She tossed it to him; silently, he caught the pack. Fumiko's medical bag thumped heavily against her thigh as she crouched.

Gaara sighed.

"We'll be gone for a few days," he said at last, as Fumiko was pulling herself back up, hands braced on the top of the dresser. "So we'll need somebody to take over teaching the Academy students."

What? she thought. Fumiko turned to face him.

"But- Gaara, you know I'm only adequate with basic weapons. I'm not qualified to-"

He stepped closer. "Teach them Genjutsu, then," he pleaded. "Fumiko, please, stay here."

The restless, unnerved tone of his voice made Fumiko pause, argument poised on the tip of her tongue. She reached up with her left hand and placed her palm on Gaara's cheek, studying his eyes. The first thing she saw was the wall- but behind it, fear; and determination. Finally, she sighed, and dropped her head on Gaara's chest.

"Okay, Gaara. I'll watch the Academy."

"We need to go," he said quietly, which was his way of saying, Thank you.

Fumiko laughed a little and pulled away, dropping her hand and straightening. She reached out with both her hands and straightened his gourd strap.

"I know. Go find Matsuri."

...

Fumiko watched the Sand Siblings leave, grinning and waving after them. Kankuro waved back, but Gaara and Temari just looked ahead as they crossed through the gates. She lingered for a few minutes after they were out of sight, studying the shimmery haze of the hot desert air. Fumiko was pondering whether or not to leave when she heard footsteps behind her.

She looked back over her shoulder, and was surprised to see Baki, shuffling through the sand towards her.

"Baki!" she said. "You just missed them if that's what you wanted."

Baki nodded and joined her by the gate, staring out in a fashion similar to the way Fumiko had just moments before. Which meant he probably had something on his mind- maybe the mission he had mentioned earlier.

They stood side by side for a few long minutes. Baki's arms were crossed. Hers hung at her sides.

"Baki," she said.

"Hm?"

"Gaara is... Gaara is strong."

He quirked an eyebrow but said nothing.

"And..." she smiled. "So is Matsuri."


	32. Chapter 32

As it turned out, worrying about Gaara and Matsuri was pretty hard when you were surrounded on all sides by a class of ninja-to-be that were supposed to have three different sensei to handle them. Now she was on her own.

"So, Fumiko-sensei now?"

"Where's Kankuro-sensei?"

"And Temari?"

"Hey, why isn't Matsuri or Gaara here?"

"Do you even know how to use weapons?"

Fumiko blinked. "Not really, on a mission, on a mission, I can't tell you and on a mission, and um, well, sort of."

They stared at her. Luckily, Fumiko had made a decent first impression, so at least for now they were listening to her and not just swarming off every which way. Many of them already had their weapons in hand, expectant. Mai stood alone with her Tanto blades strapped to her hips, expression troubled. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and she was looking somewhere else, eyes unfocused on the ground.

"So what are you gonna teach us then?" one boy demanded.

"I'm actually going to try and teach you Genjustu. I'm good at that." Fumiko smiled. A few of the kids looked at her uncertainly, probably because Genjutsu hadn't been in their curriculum since last year and they had already passed all those tests. Some looked thrilled, and others' faces soured instantly, like they had bad memories of Genjutsu and didn't care to revisit them.

"Again?"

"But I can already do that!"

"Maybe." Fumiko laughed. "But I bet it wasn't as fun."

That caused a rumbling murmur of excited chattering. The group of them shifted like a sand dune, turning to speak to each other in hushed tones and raised voices. Fumiko caught a few things like, 'Fun?' and 'What's she talking about?' and one very confused, 'I thought she wasn't a ninja!'

Gaara had told her to teach them Genjutsu, but he hadn't told her how. The only way for her to teach them Genjutsu was to show them how she had learned Genjutsu- as an expression of self rather than just a weapon. Art was the only way she knew how to do Genjutsu at all, and she was probably going to seriously confuse these kids, but hopefully it would work.

At least a little.

Temari probably was going to be a bit furious when she came back, but Kankuro would maybe back her up, and besides, the arena would look much better this way, anyway.

Where the tables usually were, there was now a haphazard pile/sprawling mess of paint cans, brushes, and towels that Yoshiki had helped her to lug. Fumiko was surprised that none of the kids had mentioned it yet, but she spotted some of them eyeing the materials, like they were wondering why the sand under two leaking cans was turning purple.

"Okay, so first things first," Fumiko said, clapping her hands together. She shifted her weight, and most of the students' eyes were drawn instantly to the shifting springs in her prosthetic. "What's your favorite color?"

...

Now that all of the students were equipped with various different shades of rainbow and black, Fumiko attempted to actually teach them.

Canvas was expensive, and from the way Fumiko herself had painted when she was younger, she knew there was no way they would ever have enough canvas to satisfy a class this large. So she figured, hey, she had painted it to begin with... so why not use the walls?

A few eager kids had already started swiping colors across the stone. Some were glaring at their paintbrushes like they had personally offended them, but that was an easy enough fix. At least, she figured it would be. She had never actally tried to teach anybody how to paint. Mai wasn't interested, Yoshiki wasn't interested, and Gaara wasn't interested.

And until now, that had sort of been all her options.

"So! Uh." she thought for a moment. "Who knows how to paint already?"

A few tentative hands went up, mostly from younger girls, but there were some boys as well.

"Good. I don't think there's any real way to teach any of you how to paint at all, so just go nuts and get paint on everything!" Fumiko grinned. This was going to be really fun. "Forget pretty much everything you've been taught about Genjutsu already and just wing it."

They stared at her, wide-eyed. Mai was off doing her own thing, hanging from the edge of the top of the wall with a wall-climbing jutsu and finger-painting everything red, black, and green.

After a few moments of this Fumiko smiled uncertainly. "Um... so. Paint! Make a mess!"

"Fumiko-sensei," one boy piped up with one eyebrow raised. His voice was dripping with disbelief and a sort of annoyed tone that only people who always followed rules could use.

"Yeah?"

"What are we supposed to make?"

"Pretty much whatever," Fumiko said with a shrug and a broad smile. "Sugar, paint yourselves if you want to."

"But... that isn't Genjutsu at all!" Another boy at the wall to her left, one of the ones who looked ready to snap his paintbrush in half, said, and stamped his foot. "We're supposed to be learning how to be strong ninja, not pansy artists!"

"That's what Genjutsu is," Fumiko said. "At least, that's how I use it."

"But-"

"Just paint, you loser," Mai yelled from above his head. "Fumiko's one of the best Genjutsu users I've ever seen, so if she tells you to paint, then paint, damn it." She held up her red-stained hands, waving them down at him. "It's not that hard."

"Um... thanks, Mai." Fumiko said with a bubbling laugh. "Any more questions?"

One girl raised her hand. "Um, so, Fumiko-sensei, I don't really know how to draw..." she glanced up uncertainly at Mai for a moment before her eyes drifted down to her paintbrush. "It's just, nobody really draws."

"Hmm." Fumiko twirled a paintbrush in her fingers. It was already stained blue. "Okay. Here, watch this- I'll show you how to paint a cactus, then."

The girl blinked. Fumiko turned around to the wall, reaching up with her brush. Already their were confused shouts of, 'Cactai aren't blue', but she ignored them, biting her lip as she swept her brush out in a wide arc that totally did not look like a cactus at all. It was more of a big squiggly, actually, that might have been water or the horizon of the desert but was probably just a line.

It morphed into the mass of a whale fluke- something she'd seen in a picture once- and with a few more shadows from a grey brush she picked up along the way, turned into a large, hollow butterfly. The colors grew in size and shape until it was almost as wide as she was tall. There were no sounds- the children behind her were almost mesmerized, right up until she turned around.

"What is it?"

"That's not a cactus."

"See?" Fumiko smiled. "I tell you to draw a cactus, and you draw a cactus. I tell you to draw-" she waved her hand at the work behind her. "-and you can pretty much blow your own mind with what you come up with."

"So can you draw a cactus?"

This was followed by snorts of laughter and a few jeers.

"Pff, of course I can," Fumiko laughed. "But that's not the point."

...

"Fumiko." Mai said from right behind her.

Fumiko jumped. She was helping a boy make some sort of zombie-puppy mix that was odd, but he seemed to love it. The last time Fumiko had seen her, she was six feet above Fumiko's head and slashing a continuous red line around the border of the wall, but now Mai's tone was deadly serious.

Fumiko turned. "What is it?"

"Up there," Mai said, jerking her thumb at the top of the wall, towards the back. "I sensed some crazy chakra signatures. Day or two old, so it was weak, but I followed it down there-" she swerved her hand to point at the ground in the center of the arena where Matsuri's Dohjo had been found. "-and found this. I think Matsuri nicked it off somebody's something."

In her other palm, Mai held a tiny sliver of some weird metal, no bigger than her pinky nail and about as thin as a piece of canvas. It was purely white, but was scratched blackish along one side like it had been scratched out of something.

Fumiko reached for it. "What is it?"

Mai pulled it back a little, away from her grasping fingers. "I wouldn't touch it. This thing absorbs chakra. My hand's about numb."

"Absorbs..." Fumiko chewed on the inside of her cheek. "You mean one of those Celestials guys had something that absorbs chakra?"

"Dunno for sure," she said seriously. "But if they do, and Gaara mistakes the guy for a taijutsu or bukijutsu user-"

"Yeah." Fumiko's brain whirred.

Gaara's attacks relied solely on chakra. He built up his sand with it, turned it into a weapon, and when all else failed, used it for a backup kind of taijutsu. If he was fighting an enemy who could absorb chakra... That sand wouldn't be able to touch his opponent at all. If Gaara got too close too fast, he wouldn't be able to get away.

Kankuro's attacks as well would be useless. If this chip of something came from a sword, then they would be able to easily cut the chakra strings he used to maintain his puppets. If it was some kind of armor, than his poison blades wouldn't have any effect. Only Temari would be able to fight against those kinds of weapons, and according to the name of those people, there were four of them.

Temari against four people, with Gaara and Kankuro disabled and with Matsuri as a hostage? Even if Leaf shinobi got there in time... it was dangerous. A dangerous game fought against some dangerous strangers.

All around her, the arena was transforming with starbursts of colors and shapes as the students got more and more into their work. Mai didn't do Genjutsu- she could, but she hated the patience it required.

"What do you wanna do?"

"Mai..." Fumiko said.

"Don't give me that 'Mai' stuff." she said, waving it off. "I heard you and Gaara talking. You said you would stay here, but you didn't promise to stay until he got back. Gaara can handle himself, but there's a chance he won't be okay. The question is, what do you want to do?"

"... I need to do some research. I'll teach these kids today but after that I need time to..." she thought for a moment. "Mai, can you go to the archives and look through the most recent bingo books?"

"For?"

"Ryuugan," she said. "Him and anybody that matches the descriptions from the report. Try and figure out how many if any of them have that kind of material."

"What if they aren't in the books?"

"If they're defects, they should be labeled from the notices we get from the other countries. If they're not, they're probably powerful shinobi that the nations have an interest in. Sugar... if they aren't in the bingo books, then I don't know where else we'd find them."

Mai nodded. "And what do I do with this?"

"Let me keep it. I won't touch it, but I want to study it." Fumiko rummaged through her bag and pulled out a two-thirds empty bottle of sugar. She unscrewed the lid. "I don't think sugar has chakra..."

Mai dropped it in. Her fingers didn't move, and her hand was starting to droop. "On it."

She shunshinned away.

"Where's Mai going?" a child asked.

"Is something wrong?"

"Is class dismissed?"

"Ne, ne," she said, pushing thoughts of chakra and danger to the back of her mind, smiling and rubbing her hands together. "No. Okay, I think you guys have the hang of it. Now we can start using our chakra instead of paint."

...

"This is what I found." Mai said, startling Fumiko, who sat on her bed studying the sliver of metal. She dropped a folder stuffed with papers on the covers unceremoniously. "A lot of people fit a lot of descriptions, even with the absorption material criteria tacked on. I also talked to Yoshiki, and he's going through files that I can't see yet until I'm a genin."

"Thanks." Fumiko flipped open the folder, glancing at the photo attached to the first paper- a stranger, an unfamiliar face. "I'll get on this."

"Why is Asuka here?"

"I picked her up on my way home," Fumiko said, petting the bird, who hopped forward a little at her name. "I'm going to try and talk to Tsunade, see if she knows anything about these people. The Land of Fire tends to be a little more well-informed than the Land of Wind, right up to medical techniques."

Mai scoffed. "You're going to send a friendly letter to Konoha's hokage?"

"Yep."

"Good luck with that."

"Thank you."

"Fumiko, that was sarcasm."

"I know." Fumiko shuffled through the papers, blinking at picture after picture.

She was working by a reading light. The sun had gone down hours ago, which led Fumiko to worry even more- almost two days into the mission. The chances were that Gaara might have already run into whoever had that material.

"So what are you gonna do if you figure out this whole bunch of them has this stuff?"

"I'm going to warn them."

"How?"

"The same way I always do. I'll find them and tell them."

Mai nodded with satisfaction. "There's my sister. I was wondering where my genes went."

"Ryuugan!"

"What?"

"I found Ryuugan," Fumiko said, staring down at the picture of a young-looking boy with blue hair and pupiless green eyes. It crinkled at the edges where she was gripping it. Fumiko skimmed the scarce information provided by bingo books. "Blue hair, green eyes... fights with an unusual sword- no other information available... from the village of artisans."

"The village of artisans?" Mai said in a startled tone. "Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that village was gone."

"What?"

"Just the other day," Mai clarified. "Ninja stuff, I guess. There was no one left in the village at all. They suspect mass murder. That village was always a big fat target, what with all the weapons they made."

"Huh..." Fumiko frowned. Killed for making weapons? She would have thought the nations would respect a potential ally. But, she supposed it could be the opposite... "What about these others? His genin team was with two people called Kujaku and Suiko."

"Yeah, I grabbed theirs too," Mai said. "It was a total pain in the ass, but everyone and their partners is in that file."

"But there were four," Fumiko thought aloud. Her contemplative frown deepened. "So who's the fourth?"

"I'll leave you to that, go see what Yoshiki found." Mai said. "I'll let him know to narrow it down to the village of artisans."

Fumiko put Ryuugan's profile to the side and flipped through the stack of pages until she found another familiar name- Kujaku. A girl with short green and yellow hair, a small face. Fought with 'wind blades' or so they were described.

Mai left quickly, leaving her alone with Asuka and a pile of papers.

...

Tsunade pursed her lips.

When she'd first received a scroll from Sunagakure, it was with their fastest messenger bird and an official seal, asking help in apprehending a bunch of criminals who had kidnapped a kid from their Academy. Now, the second time in as many days, she got another scroll- from a different bird. It wasn't even sealed.

But when she opened it, she'd recognized the handwriting right away. Not quite sloppy, tight Japanese letters scrawled across the page, just like the various medical reports written by one Mitsuwa Fumiko, a volunteer at the hospital. She remembered the name from the Sasuke incident- the girl who'd assisted Choji.

So, pushing away the pile of work she had to do, Tsunade read it.

Dear Tsunade,

I know that you just got a letter from Suna yesterday, concerning the Four Celestials and Matsuri. But I recently discovered something that makes things a little different, and I wanted to know if you could help me...

"Village of Artisans?" she said loudly. Kakashi had just completed a mission concerning them. Her frown deepened. "Chakra absorption..."

Do you have any information about why they might want Shukaku's power?

Tsunade stood, slamming her chair back in the process. She rifled through the old stack of papers pushed to the edge of her desk, reports she had already gone through, until she came across Kakashi's- turned in on time, early even, for once. She remembered reading something from it before- about the 'ultimate weapon' of the village...

She stuffed it in a sort of official-looking way into the message pouch, then marched out of the hokage's office to find previous reports on the village of artisans. Something was niggling at the back of her mind.

A forbidden technique.

...

Asuka screeched as she dived into the arena. A few children yelped, but many of them were caught in their partner's Genjutsu, and so didn't react.

Fumiko looked up curiously and wrapped one arm quickly into the folds of her cloak and holding it out. Asuka screeched again and flapped down to rest, talons togging harmlessly into the fabric.

"Just a message," she called out to the children. "Keep going, you guys are doing great."

They quickly lost interest in Asuka's surprise appearance, turning to concentrate on their dazed partners.

Teaching Genjutsu had been easier than she thought it would be. Once the students realized that she wasn't confining them to techniques and stereotypes, they fashioned their own styles of chakra pulsing and coloring until their jutsu was just as unpredictable as her shifting painting had been. Now they were taking turns showing it off, seeing how long it would hold.

Two nights and three days. Three days now that the Sand Siblings had been gone.

Quickly she slid the scroll from Asuka's pouch and opened it in one hand so that it slid open down her arm. Asuka's wings flapped again, rustling her hair, but she didn't particularly mind it.

Fumiko,

This news is disturbing. If what you say is true, than we have a far bigger problem on our hands than just a simple kidnapping. Unfortunately, a lot of what you say seems to add up...

Her eyes flickered over the page. Fourth member still unknown, identities confirmed...

Ultimate weapon of the Village of Artisans?

I have enclosed as well two mission-reports. One is very recent, the other was turned in years before I became Hokage. Hopefully they are of some use to you. I have already sent out a genin team...

"Asuka, go find Yoshiki." Fumiko said. The enclosed documents were still wrapped closed and sealed inside of the pouch, and quickly she stuffed the letter back in as well. "Stay with him until he sends you back, okay?"

Asuka screamed once before taking off, causing a small cloud of dusty sand to floom up around her.

"Fumiko-sensei, I think I broke my partner." one girl said uncertainly.

"Huh?" Fumiko blinked and glanced over at them. A boy and a girl stood a few feet away from each other- the girl standing with her hands up like she'd employed a technique, the boy kind of swaying on his feet and mumbling. "Oh!"

She rushed over.

"I didn't mean to," she said. "Spiders aren't that scary!"

...

"Tssh!" Fumiko hissed when she touched the metal chip.

It stung, having your chakra absorbed. She quickly pulled her fingers back.

"Fumiko, I've been doing a bit of digging around." Yoshiki said from where he sat on the bed. "Look, there's not a whole lot on the village of artisan except that they were really good smithers, making weapons and armor."

Fumiko looked up from her notes. "But?"

"But," he said, "There was this one thing. A guy named Seimei."

"Seimei?"

"He was literally known as 'the ultimate weapon of Takumi village.' Really powerful guy, but he died a while ago. He was basically their equivelant of a Kage, a mayor or something."

"The ultimate weapon?" Fumiko exclaimed. "So that's the connection."

"Connection to what?" Yoshiki pushed off the edge of the comfortor and walked across the room to look over her shoulder. "Whoa," he said when he saw her scatter of notes and written thoughts. "What is all that?"

"Possibilities." Fumiko bit her lip. "That Suiko guy was the only one of them with the chakra-absorbing stuff, thank Kami. But it's armor, and that's really bad if Gaara has to fight him. I'm trying to find out where the chakra is going."

"Where it's going? Wouldn't it be going to Suiko, then, if he's wearing the armor?"

"I don't know. I would think it has to be touching him..." Fumiko smiled tiredly. "But I'll figure it out. If it is going straight to him, then we might be able to help from a distance, if I can figure out what chakra nature Suiko has."

"You mean like poison him?"

"Sort of," she said. "But if he's a mixed elemental that won't work, or if the chakra just stores up in this bit of metal here. Besides, Gaara's probably already fighting this guy, if he hasn't already..."

"So, what," Yoshiki said with a disbelieving frown. "You're going to go after them?"

"Yeah, I think so," Fumiko said. "I canceled the Academy classes early. It's only morning so if I hurry..." her voice trailed off. "Wait. Wait."

"What?"

"Oh, sugar!" Her fingers moved to close around the chip, and even though it stung, she held onto it. "If this guy absorbs chakra with this armor, that means it has to be infused with chakra!"

"So?"

"So if I can reverse it, everything will scatter."

"Um... so?"

"My sensitivity to chakra signatures," she explained. "I should be able to follow it. If his chakra is stored in here and I release it from this far away-"

"Oh, I get it," Yoshiki said, blinking fast, lips cast into a deep frown. "You can track it where it goes. But you would have to move really fast, and I don't think you should go out there at all, let alone by yourself. I'm sure Gaara can take care of himself just fine."

Fumiko's sporadic chakra signature made her extremely sensitive to other- especially familiar- chakra. It was why she could sense Gaara when he was close, or discover someone before they snuck up on her. If she wasn't focusing on something else, usually she could pick up on present traces of chakra. But a piece this small- she wasn't as sure.

"I've moved fast before," Fumiko said with a laugh, standing. Her notes scattered. "And I'm not going alone. Mai's coming with me."

...

"Pack up now?"

"Yes, please."

"And we're supposed to get there in a few hours."

"Yep."

"Which isn't supposed to be particularly possible, along with the fact that we're tracing a chakra signature that's only a whisper big?" Mai raised her eyebrows, scowling. Actually, she had one hand stuck in her punching bag, which was steadily losing more and more sand, so it looked more like she was frustrated at the bag then at her.

"Yep."

"I'm in." She tugged her fist out; sand exploded into the air before spilling with a fury onto the floor. "Let's go."

...

Fumiko shuffled though her notes, rearranging them and rewriting them, trying to figure out how in the world she would reverse the effect. The easies thing to do would be to flood it with chakra- she had determined through testing that it was stored in the stone and would have to touch the creator to expel- but that would take a lot.

But there wasn't much other choice.

Mai stood casually beside her, waiting. Fumiko was gripping the rock in her hand, trying to throw as much chakra into her hand as she could while holding one gate closed.

The sun was at it's highest now. If any of her math was right, and they kept up a constant speed, and didn't die slamming into something, they would probably be able to make it to the fight scenes before six. But they would have to leave now.

Finally, finally, the tiniest wisp of foreign chakra seeped out, crystalline and blue.

Fumiko's fingers clenched around the stone. A water user.

The chakra fled, zipping though the air like a rubber band had snapped.

...

"I remember when you did this," Mai said conversationally, not even out of breath as she ran at lightning speed in a chakra-fueled shunshin. "You went right to Leaf's hospital unconscious, didn't you?"

Her 'yep' sounded more like an airy heef at the speed they were moving.

"Ah, memories. Left or right?"

The intense, almost liquid blue chakra flickered. Fumiko tried to concentrate, but it was hard- there wasn't even wind, they were moving so fast, and Mai could hold this out longer than Fumiko had- she had training for chakra control, as well as the basic closed gates. That helped too.

The chakra slithered away.

"Leff!" she yelped. Mai darted sideways, barely avoiding a tree.

"I hate these forests," she grumbled, flitting and jumping and ducking and spinning as she ran to avoid splattering across a tree. "Too many things to shunshin into! It's not helping in the least that I have to carry you all over the damn place." The shunshin didn't seem to be affecting her at all, really.

Fumiko's mouth hurt from chewing on it. A water user, chakra-absorption armor or weapon, as well as them having teammates and with Matsuri... she was worried. What if she didn't make it? Three days later, with no word from their top shinobi team on what was supposed to be a simple Search and Rescue mission, the odds stacked against them.

He wouldn't be dead. If what she guessed was true, then...

Gaara had changed since meeting Uzumaki Naruto. He had opened, showing the real him to others. The carefulness of his person had faded, and now, he could look carefree without resting- he could just be happy. Shukaku had less and less to use against him- nothing to provoke an attack.

But if he was forced out-

Gaara had changed. But could he control it?

Don't worry, Gaara had always told her. I'll be safe.

She held on to those words as tightly as she could.

"Don't worry too much," Mai called, voice sliding past Fumiko's ear. Trees blurred around them- they had left behind the wide sandy desert ages ago. "Gaara's a tough one. And besides, he has Kankuro and Temari with him."

"I know. I just have this feeling, though..." Fumiko's voice came out clearly, and she blinked. "Are we slowing down?"

"Fight up ahead," Mai said. "I can hear it. Just listen for a second."

Fumiko did, leaning forward slightly. There was a sound of shifting metal, and now that she concentrated, there was pulses of familiar chakra. Uzumaki Naruto, and Matsuri directly ahead; Temari, Kankuro, Shikamaru, Sakura, and a few she didn't quite recognize farther away, scattered.

Where was Gaara's? No, there it was. Fumiko bit her lip. But something was wrong with it. Something was... blocking it.

It was tingeing yellow around the edges, fizzling and crackling like sand on a hot, summer desert day. The red was being eaten away bit by bit. Unfortunately, this chakra was almost as familiar to her as Gaara's- it was always there, bubbling just under the surface.

"Hurry, Mai!"

"Hang on, I'm getting you outta there!" someone shrieked. "Just hold on, Gaara!"

...

This was going very, very badly.

Gaara slammed his clenched fists against the metal cage. No light filtered through at all; he couldn't hear the sounds of battle. Just pure darkness, and a voice in his head that was getting louder and louder by the second.

Naruto was out there. Naruto and Matsuri.

With that- that man. That Hoki, blabbering nonsense about an Ultimate Weapon. And the scariest part was, Gaara was starting to believe him. What did he mean by reviving the ultimate weapon?

But already Gaara was weak. He had mistaken the giant man as a simple shinobi, that used weapons like Bukijutsu. Most armor crumbled under the pure pressure of his sand attacks- he hadn't been expecting it to eat away at the power in his sand.

And on top of everything else, he had been a water user. Gaara had almost died in that fight- and he knew it. This thing, this cage, he could feel it starting to hum and come alive, could feel it starting to chip away at what little chakra he had left. Panic drove him to collapse, sitting hard in the center of his cage, breathing heavily.

If his chakra was completely absorbed- then- that other chakra would emerge.

He had to know what was going on. Even as his skin hardened and hissed, even while sand swirled over his face, Gaara forced himself to breath; his jutsu still worked. Slowly he raised a hand to his closed eye, searching for a link to snap his nerves to. Finally, somewhere, his sand sensed his presence, and finally, somehow, it connected.

He opened the third eye.


	33. Inuzuka Mai- Damn it!

Mai put her down, straightening.

"I don't like this," she warned.

Fumiko knew what she meant. Something was seriously wrong up ahead- aside from Shukaku's growing influence, there was a weird, warped chakra signature just ahead of them where the trees thinned. It was insanely strong, but for some reason, it felt wrong- fighting itself, as if there were two parts warring for control. It wasn't any color, just a void- trying to suck itself away.

There was a rushing sound like blades cutting through air. Somebody was shouting.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Fumiko breathed. "... He's not here."

"Naruto's not?"

"No- Ryuugan. Or the man who's chakra we followed. The trail dispersed." Fumiko bit her lip. "He's dead. But whoever's up there- something's wrong with him. Part of Ryuugan is in him somehow, and the other blue chakra. He's using it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Can't you feel it?" Fumiko turned her head to look at Mai, snapped out of her reverie. Her sister was tense, hands on her blades' hilts. "Like... like a whole bunch of chakras trying to be a different one. It's strange."

Mai scowled. She started to say, "No, I-"

But then something in the air turned very, very still, chaos seeping from every frozen breath. Like a snap, or a scream.

"Sugar," Fumiko breathed, dashing forward toward the sunshine seeping through the tree line. Mai, after a moment's hesitation, followed, catching up to her in less than a second. "Not now!"

She always said that, not now. 

Like Shukaku's release could happen any other time.

"What? What is it?"

"I've wasted too much time on you." a low, cool voice said with disinterest.

They broke into a clearing. Way ahead of them, there was an outcropping of rocks, like a cliff side or collapsed mountain. In a hollow of it, a dead end, there was a large metal half-sphere, and two people- Uzumaki Naruto, and somebody else, the owner of that dying chakra. He had white hair, white skin, pale clothes, but dark blue weapons hovered above his shoulders ominously.

Uzumaki Naruto was o top of that half-sphere, crouched defensively like a cat. Fumiko squinted.

"What the hell is that?" Mai said.

She could feel it- chakra, seeping through it, dancing on the metal like flames. Usually, she wouldn't, but her body and mind were so well attuned to this dark red-blue chakra that she would recognize it anywhere.

"He's in that thing," Fumiko said urgently, tugging on her necklace. "We have to get closer!"

Mai said, "You got it," and they were flying again, soaring in a smooth jump that skidded to a dusty, grinding halt just beside a large rock. Almost hidden from view. However, both ninja were too occupied to notice them.

"This game was entertaining, but it ends now." the man- Seimei, Fumiko realized with a start, recognizing him from the report descriptions. He was floating somehow, with armor and two swords and strange blue blades coming from behind him. But that couldn't be right- Seimei was dead. 

Then she spotted the coffin.

Seimei's sword burst into flames, orange and hot and writhing, but it didn't seem to affect him. Uzumaki Naruto tensed for half a second, and then the tip of the sword seemed to explode, bellowing fire with an explosion of rippling heat. It enveloped the sphere.

"Woah, what did we just jump into?" Mai exclaimed.

"Gaara! Uzumaki Naruto!" Fumiko cried with horror.

Uzumaki Naruto fell, slipping sideways off the sphere like he'd ducked under the flames. Parts of his track suit were smoldering, and he smacked at them frantically as they burned. Seimei hovered closer, raising his blue tails. "What a little pest."

Wind blasted with a movement of his twin swords; Uzumaki Naruto went flying backwards, skidding over the hot sphere with painful-sounding skids, then flipping through the air like a used rag doll. Seimei moved tracked him, following easily. His blue blades raised over his head, poised to kill. Uzumaki Naruto struggled to stand.

"Now to end this!"

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Fumiko cried. She moved without really thinking about it, Mai's hand slipping from her elbow as she tore forward in a semi-shunshin, stumbling and flopping painfully into the ground in front of her friend, dust sliding beneath her as she raised her hands, ground scraping her skin raw as Naruto choked something like What the-

One terribly sharp blue blade sliced her arm; blood trailed down her wrist and she bit down on her lip, hard, but made eye contact.

Seimei's eyes were a startling pale purplish-white, almost like a byakugan. They were ringed with red much in the same way that hers were ringed with black.

There was no time to paint. Only to assert.

The blades stopped, hovering.

It hurt to touch this man's chakra- it fought her in a way that chakra didn't fight, snarling and trying to suck it in, but she eveloped it, tried to dull it. Seimei saw no images, just struggled. A paralyzing Genjutsu, weak but affective, at least for a second while spots danced in front of her eyes.

"Fumiko!" Mai hollered.

"Fumiko-chan?" Uzumaki Naruto said from behind her.

Fumiko's face screwed in concentration. She was half lying, half sitting, crouched awkwardly on the ground where she had tripped and fallen in her half-baked shunshin. Her hands trembled, clawing the air, as her mind burned. Her mind scorched wherever it touched his, and it made her freeze, staring as his eyes shivered in rage.

"U-Uzumaki Naruto," she managed.

"What the heck are you doing here?" he exclaimed. "How are you doing that, anyway?"

"Genjutsu." Her words were clipped. He was trying to reverse it- another Genjutsu user. "What's going- on?"

Mai had run forward, slashing at the dragon-swathed blades with a kunai viciously, trying to cut the strings that held them together like puppets. She cursed loudly when it didn't work.

"I dunno." Uzumaki Naruto said, scowl in his voice. "This guy's completely crazy. He trapped Gaara in that thing, and he keeps talking about using Shukaku for something."

"...!" Fumiko couldn't drop her eyes- if she did the Genjutsu would fade instantly. But out of the corner of her eye, she could make out the dark outline of that sphere. Soundlessly, her teeth clenched. Warmth trickled down her chin from the corner of her mouth. "Gaara..."

"Who are you?" Seimei said, almost with disgust.

Fumiko flinched, trying to raise her hands further in a last-ditch attempt to keep it going. Something in his voice- something in his movement was disrupting-

"Uzumaki Naruto, mo-"

Like an old film stuck and skipping, the blades suddenly flashed, like they had ignored a few frames and were suddenly in front of her now. She gasped and all at once released her jutsu, falling to the side nimbly and raising her arms above her face as she fell onto her back. Some blades thunked into the ground dangerously close but didn't cut her. Uzumaki Naruto yelped and skittered back on all fours.

"Fumiko!" Mai yelled again. "Hey, you, jerk with the tails. Yes, you!"

Fumiko tried to get up, but realized her cloak was pinned, completely skewered to the dirt, leaving her half-standing up, half bent at the waist, trying to get it off. Quickly she reached to unclip it from her neck, but her chakra still sizzled with pain, making it hard to move her physical body. Finally it released, and she stumbled back, dodging through a rain of blue as the blades retracted from the ground around her.

She backed up, almost tripping over Uzumaki Naruto, who skidded to a stop behind her.

Seimei blew Mai away, cursing and flailing, then turned to them angrily.

"Mai!" Fumiko yelped, reaching in her sister's direction. Mai spun through the air, smashing into the smooth cliff side with an explosion of smoke and shrapnel. The rock crushed, cracking like an egg all around Mai's body.

"AUGH!"

Seimei growled, eyes narrowing. "Solid Blanks!"

Fumiko didn't see anything, just a rippling in the air. Seimei didn't even move.

Something smashed into her stomach, blowing her away like a leaf in a sandstorm. Something warm wrapped around her tightly, yelling as the living air struck him too. There was confusion, pain of blows and swirled colors of blue, brown, grey; sky, ground, rock, sky, ground, rock, sky ground rock-

Rock.

One final slash of air sent her spinning into the cliff and something else, something orange that gasped. They fell, hitting the ground hard. Uzumaki Naruto grunted behind her, arms still tightly clenched around her.

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

He released her. Fumiko fell forward a little before crawling forward, legs screaming, and turned around to see Uzumaki Naruto, who had slumped forward, unconscious. She shook his shoulders but he didn't budge. Seimei's darkly pleased laughter echoed through the pass. Fumiko turned her head to look at him.

"Ahh, how I have longed for this moment to finally arrive. Wash over me, Shukaku! Let me drink your power!"

The whisping instinct on the metal slowly seeped upward, sucked into that chakra void. Except that that wasn't Shukaku's chakra, it was Gaara's, and Seimei was killing him. Fumiko scrambled to her feet, swaying. Her brain felt fuzzy.

"Seimei, please stop this!" she shouted.

He glanced at her, surprise flickering across his features. Frantically she tried to engage, but the second she met his eyes, he flared his chakra, and Fumiko yelled out, eyes forced shut. She collapsed to her knees again, grasping her forehead.

"Fumiko!" Mai screeched. There was a sound of crumbling rock.

"I can feel the power," Seimei said, ecstasy evident in his voice. "It's absolutely incredible!"

He's wearing the material, Fumiko thought suddenly. That armor- he's taking in Gaara's chakra!

There was scuffling behind her, and pained grunting. Fumiko whipped around.

Uzumaki Naruto struggled to stand, using the rock behind him as a support. Fumiko stepped towards him, fluttering with her hands. Now that she looked at him- really looked at him- she realized his hands were bleeding, fingernails raw. His skin was bruised and burned. Fumiko was certain that if she tried to run a diagnostic jutsu, there would be internal damage- the only reason she wasn't broken inside was because Uzumaki Naruto had protected her.

"Hmm?" Seimei mused. "Why don't you give up? The power of the Shukaku is already mine."

The flow of energy puttered out.

"No! You're hurting him!" Fumiko tried, standing again. Her knees were shaky. Genjutsu was out- he was expecting it her. "All you're doing is letting Shukaku out! Gaara's not him!"

"And what do you know, girl?" Seimei said. "Whatever is left of Shukaku I will obliterate."

"You're not getting any of Shukaku's chakra. Your just stealing Gaara's! You have to stop!"

Seimei's smile stretched. "Well, then, I'll take his as well. Once I become powerful enough, I will declare war on the five great nations, and against every single ninja of those lands who took advantage of the village of Artisans! They will suffer the consequences of this one hundred year grudge held by my proud people, for they will all be sacrificed as we seek our revenge!"

"That was a long time ago, Seimei! You died, there's nobody left who betrayed your village." Fumiko thought wildly, trying to come up with something that would deter him. She could hear it- the growling. Coming from the cage. "And even if you-..." she faltered for a second, then went on. "Even if you kill Gaara and manage to absorb Shukaku, you won't win that kind of war!"

"With the power of the one-tails, I will destroy everything in my way!" Seimei countered.

"No." Fumiko shook her head desperately. "There are more jinchuriki like Gaara. You'll be overwhelmed. And Uzumaki Naruto beat Shukaku once. How could you beat the nations themselves?"

"Be silent!"

Another gust of wind sent her flipping over Uzumaki Naruto's head into the rock, driving her body deep enough that she made a crevice. Pain exploded in her back and head. Fumiko didn't quite slump, but she was stuck in this Fumiko-shaped hole in the stone. "Ngh!"

"F-Fumiko-chan!"

"Bastard!"

Fumiko raised her head to see a small red form darting over the rocks launch forward. "Mai! Don't-"

"What the-" Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed. "Who's that anyway?"

Mai hit the sphere, feet sliding as she spun into a fighting stance, Tanto blades drawn. Her shirt was torn, wild black curls tangled beyond care from her smash through a mountain. She scowled. "You have a death wish or something, attacking my sister like that!"

Seimei scoffed.

Then she attacked, a blur of red and black and flashing silver, whirling through the air. Seimei's blue blades tangled with hers, random bursts of wind slowing her down, but Mai vaulted over him, screaming.

While Seimei was distracted, Uzumaki Naruto helped her down, taking her hand and pulling down until she tumbled down from her hole. He steadied her with a hand on her arm. Fumiko shook the rock from her clothes. Her arms were scraped red- cloak abandoned where she had taken it off.

"Who is that girl? She looks, like, eight."

"Stay still for two damn seconds, would you?!" Mai's angry yell was followed by a series of sparks as her blades connected with his. Seimei was yelling his head off as well, only his words didn't make as much sense, and he was quieter. "Ow! Stupid dragon swords! What the hell are those things?"

Uzumaki Naruto jumped.

"That's my sister Mai."

"Well, your sister Mai is kinda scary."

"Uzumaki Naruto, we have to get Gaara out!"

Just then, a spinning ball of red and black and curses tore between them, smashing into the ground. Mai stumbled back to her feet, sporting a new red slash on her mouth. Blood poured down her chin.

"Mai! Oh sugar, are you okay?"

Mai shrugged her off. "Just a flesh wound. Don't worry, I'll get him."

"You will be the first to die by my hand!" Seimei hissed. The three of them turned to look at him. And then, the nations! They will suffer the consequences of this one hundred year grudge held by my proud people, for they will all be sacrificed as we seek our revenge!"

"You shut your mouth!" Mai and Uzumaki Naruto growled at the same time.

Mai scowled, shoving Uzumaki Naruto's shoulder. "What the heck?"

But now Uzumaki Naruto was mad and didn't respond. "If you think we're just going to let you use our own power against us, you're dead wrong! I hope you got a good taste of Gaara's chakra, 'cause you're about to give it back, you got that?"

Mai wiped her mouth, smearing blood down her arm. "We need to get Gaara out of that thing for his sake as well as ours. That whole fight, the guy kept getting stronger and stronger."

"I'm curious," Seimei said. "Why do you keep trying to win? Why is that monster of the sand village worth putting your own life on the line?"

"I'll tell you why," Uzumaki Naruto said, wiping the blood from his chin. "Because Gaara's my friend. And my friends are important!"

"Hey! Shorty might be a little depressing, antisocial, and annoying, and yeah, sometimes he destroys stuff, but nobody calls him a monster, least of all albino losers like you!" Mai yelled, stepping forward. "Come on, Naruto. I'll back you up." Then, in a quieter growl, she said, "Fumiko, get Gaara out of that hunk of metal."

"Um! Right."

"Very well, then." Seimei said. "Die for your friend."

His blades whistled forward. Mai shifted to raise her blades in a block.

Klang.

The dragon-blades tangled together as a wire curled around them, wrapping with deadly accuracy around and around until the bladed tip tied in. Fumiko blinked, tracing the wire with her eyes, all the way down to the simple wooden handle.

"Matsuri!"

"What do you think you're doing, girl?" Seimei asked with quiet intensity.

"I get it now," Matsuri said fiercely. "I finally understand what Gaara-sensei was trying to teach me. Maybe weapons took the lives of my mother and father. However- you can also use weapons to protect those close to you!"

Seimei frowned down at her. His tone was cool as ice. "Utter nonsense."

His blades lifted and whipped, lifting Matsuri into the air. She screamed as it yanked her airborne.

"Oh no you don't!"

Mai slithered forward, sliding into a shunshin. She caught Matsuri just as she would've hit the ground. The Dohjo clattered onto the dirt.

Uzumaki Naruto scowled. "Grr. You jerk!"

From below his floating form, there was the rumble of a growl like thunder, echoing in the narrow rocky pass. Then it got louder, growing more and more like a roar, setting Fumiko's nerves on edge. No, Fumiko thought. Gaara.

Seimei smiled. "The transformation has begun."

The ground rumbled for half a second. Fumiko stumbled back.

Then the sphere exploded, pieces peeling off and flying every which way. There was an explosion of wind and sand that blew her hair back and struggled to force her to the ground. At the epicenter, the focal point, there was a hand, surrounded by chakra smoke.

Ugly mottled yellow and smeared with intricate purple designs, rough and bumpy like a toad's skin. The fingers were claws, grasping the air for just a second before it was swallowed up by smoke.

"Okay, so Gaara got himself out!" Mai yelled from somewhere, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of flying debris. "But what do we do now if he tries to kill us?"

Fumiko saw the dark outline of a boy, with the giant arm of Shukaku and one single Tanuki ear.

"Gaara!" Fumiko and Uzumaki Naruto cried, him with joy, and her with fear.

His face was partially transformed. It was raw and rough and ragged, incomplete and forced. The last time Gaara had transformed, it had been slow, and gradual. Gaara had been backed into a corner and wounded- his inner instinct had kicked in, allowing the stronger force. But here- here his chakra had been drained. He didn't want to, he wasn't convinced- but the Shukaku was taking over.

Uzumaki Naruto froze. "Is... is that you?"

Drool dripped from the corners of his mouth as teeth made it more and more impossible to close it. He growled, breathing heavily as his eyes flickered about. Fumiko stepped forward cautiously. He wasn't raving, so perhaps...

"Gaara?" she asked carefully, uncertainly.

"Gaara, no!"

Shukaku/Gaara shuddered.

For a split second, Fumiko thought that by some miracle, it had worked.

Then he whipped around, almost too quickly for her too follow. But she saw his eyes. His terrible, rage-filled, merciless eyes.

"Stop hindering me! Sand Shuriken!"

Fumiko's eyes widened as the baseball-sized sand spheres rippled through the air, moving so fast that it was more like rain to her eyes. There was no way she could dodge them. Instinctively and with a scream, she raised her arms to protect her face and took a step back.

She stepped off the edge of the branch, but that didn't matter. Before she could fall they pummeled into her; flinging her back like a spinning rag doll through the air. Crushing pain ignited in her chest and arms, but then she smashed sideways into the trunk of a tree. Her body bowed backwards like it would snap in half, and Fumiko felt all the breath leave her then. When she fell, she landed folded over a branch stomach-first.

Burning heat filled her throat. She tasted blood on her tongue again, but this time, it wasn't her fault.

Her lungs screamed for air. Clumsily she tried to get up again, but there was something wrong with her arm, and she couldn't breath. Pain bruised her body. She laid limp, limbs hanging in the air.

Her ears filled with a high-pitched ringing that drowned all other sounds out.

Seimei eyed Gaara, who turned slightly and snarled back, almost in wary defensiveness.

"So. That's the Shukaku." he mused. "It's the first time I've ever seen it."

"Stop that," Mai said roughly to Matsuri, who had begun to tremble. She helped her to her feet.

Uzumaki Naruto turned to them. "Get out of here, will ya?" he said to Matsuri.

"But- but Gaara-sensei!" she protested.

"Get moving," Uzumaki Naruto said. "Gaara's only trying to keep you safe. Now get out while you can!"

Matsuri nodded. "Alright!"

Fumiko gnawed on the inside of her cheek, hugging her arms. Carefully she stepped forward, more cautiously than she ever had towards Gaara. Somewhere close, more chakras flared- Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro, and more others. Her eyes were glued on the boy in front of her- who seemed uncertain, wary like a animal, but wary meant... wary meant her friend. "Gaara... are you... okay?"

They converged around Uzumaki Naruto, speaking in soft tones that Fumiko didn't bother to pick up.

"I never imagined that I would be fighting Shukaku himself. But far from dreading the battle, I'm delighted. It will give me the opportunity to prove that even his power is no match for the village of artisans' ultimate ninja tool."

Air at her side, and then hands on her arms. "Fumiko, what's your take?"

"Mai." she said, startled. Mai's face was set with concentration, brows furrowed. One sword was drawn, the other rested in it's sheath. For a second, Fumiko realized just how talented her sister was- already, those weapons were an extension of herself. But a low growl brought her attention back to Gaara and Seimei.

"So what do you think?" Mai's frown deepened, and she glanced up at Seimei. "Obviously that guy's a loon, but what about Gaara? You know him better than anyone else here. Temari and Kankuro are saying it's useless. He keeps up, Seimei and the rest of us are going down. If Gaara stops himself..."

Fumiko wavered. For that split second, she really didn't know.

But then Gaara's one blue eye narrowed in the way that it always did when he was trying to assess a situation.

"It's him," she confirmed.

"Gaara him, or him him?"

"Gaara," she said, relief swelling in her chest. "That's still Gaara!"

For a moment Gaara's eye flickered to her. She nodded just slightly, smiling, and the eye shivered and slid back to his opponent. Gaara's fist clenched. Both of his eyes slammed shut, and he groaned like he couldn't breathe.

With his eyes closed, he looked more human.

Fumiko realized suddenly that she was only yards away from the fight. Seimei hovered close to her right, but still, Gaara was closer. Everyone else stood farther off, cautiously waiting to see what Gaara would do.

There was a trickling sound, almost like an hourglass running out. And then it was a waterfall, sand rushing from Gaara's face and then his arm, dissipating entirely until only his face remained, and then his other hand was unearthed soon after. The gourd Fumiko had worked so hard to make began to reform, solidifying on his back.

"Look!" Matsuri cried. "He's starting to turn back to normal!"

"But- but how?" Uzumaki Naruto stammered disbelievingly. "What happened?"

Gaara's eyes opened again. Bloodshot, drooping; he was exhausted, but blue. Both of his eyes were blue.

Mai grinned. "Good going, Gaara," she said, almost to herself.

Seimei chuckled to himself like the whole thing was amusing. "So it was too much for your chakra to complete the transformation, hey?"

"If I'm to help my friends, I must do it for myself, on my own!" Gaara's voice was still tinged with the gravelly, growling undertone, but it was him, and Shukaku could only complain, now. Gaara was set and determined to keep himself.

"You fool," Semei said condescendingly, like he was correcting a small child. "You're allowing your emotions to guide you. A shinobi must abandon emotion if he's ever to obtain ultimate power. And power..." Seimei smiled. "Power is the only true thing in this world, as you're about to find out. It's over."

His blades morphed, moulding into creepy grinning dragons. They flashed forward.

Gaara jumped. The first head slammed into the ground, but the second and third followed him into the air, slashing across his shoulder and then his back. Gaara grunted in pain. "Hngh!"

"Gaara!" Fumiko called worriedly. Her fingers tightened on the strap of her medical pack.

Gaara landed a few yards away, grimacing.

"Your time is done, you freak of the sand village."

"Who's calling who a freak?" Mai demanded, temper sparking. She tried to dash forward, but Fumiko had anticipated this and grabbed onto the back of her kunoichi shirt, stopping her.

"Wait."

Gaara looked up, shivering with exhaustion as he did so, and smiled.

"Hmm," Semei hummed. "Why so cocky? You have no more chakra- in fact, I'm surprised you have the strength to hold that grin on your face."

"Yes, my chakra's almost totally depleted," Gaara said, still smiling cynically. "But- all the time I was trapped in that cage, do you think I was just sitting on my hands doing nothing, huh?"

His grin dropped suddenly in favor of a concentrating line. He clapped his hands together. "Sand Tsunami!"

For a moment, nothing happened. Semei scoffed. "Hah. It would appear that you have run out of sand, as well as chakra."

"Mai, we need to move," Fumiko said suddenly. "We need to move right now!"

"Okay, okay," Mai said, grabbing her arms without protest and jumping away, back towards the suddenly large group of people watching from the distance. "You're pretty bossy, you know-"

Gaara's eyes hardened. "I am Gaara of the desert," he said forcefully. "Wherever there's rock or there's earth, I can make more sand."

A crackling noise filled the air. Suddenly rocks were falling all around the pass, already weakened big looming hunks of them bigger than horses smashing apart on the soil, scattering into sand and shrapnel. Dust rose in clouds like a storm as sand pulsed around them, flowing like water. Like a tsunami.

As it rushed towards them, the group scattered, escaping backwards as quickly as they could. Mai yelped, catching her footing on a raised outcropping of rocks beside Kiba as the sand thundered past to demolish the surrounding forests.

"Hi, Kiba," Fumiko said when his lip curled in confusion, leaning forward to look around Mai. "... At least it wasn't your forest this time."

"Fumiko?" He cocked his head at them, momentarily confused. Akamaru barked. "Hey wait, who's the squirt?"

Mai punched his arm, hard. Kiba yelped.

"The next person who calls me a squirt, a brat, or a kid dies." Mai said flatly. "It's getting ridiculous. For Kami's sake, why do you have a dog on your head?"

Kiba blinked, rubbing his forearm.

Fumiko surveyed the new desert. Gaara lowered his hands briefly.

"Kujaku Hurricane formation!" Seimei's angry cold voice called from somewhere deep in the sand. A blast of air shot into the sky, pushing the sand back. Slowly, he raised back up out of his prison.

"I think we need to work on his Sand Tsunami," Fumiko said. "This is the second time somebody's gotten out of it so easily..."

Kiba snorted. "Do this often?"

"Something like that."

"Gaara'll be fine," Mai said. "Seimei should've just stayed buried. Now he's gonna try and fight Gaara in the middle of a damn desert."

"No, seriously," Kiba asked. "How old are you?"

"For your information, I'm ten."

"So you've that much chakra left, how unexpected!" his tone was jeering and furious, but still frosty cold. "O the other hand, that means there's that much more I can feed on!"

Light sparked on his armor. Wind flowed into it like a vacuum.

Neji started. "He's draining the last of Gaara's chakra!"

"What?" Uzumaki Naruto exclaimed.

"Gaara-sensei!" Matsuri cried.

"That does it!" Uzumaki Naruto growled.

"Just stay out of it." Kankuro said sternly, eyes fixed on the battle. Fumiko nodded slightly. Gaara was okay. Stealing his chakra was a terrible thing, but he had overcome Shukaku, and everyone was here- if anything went wrong there would be help immediately. But for some reason... Fumiko had this unexplainable sense of confidence.

Gaara would win.

"Stay out of it? What are you talkin' about?"

"Look, you'll only be getting in the way." Temari said. "And Gaara is stronger than you think."

"Watch, Uzumaki Naruto." Fumiko said.

Gaara raised his hand above his head. The sand hissed. "Extreme tempered ultimate attack!" he rumbled, and a rod formed in his hands, gaining at the end a fire-like rendition of Shukaku's claws, shot through with red lines. "Shukaku's pike!"

Fumiko smiled. "I haven't seen him use that since the Academy. I forgot."

"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked. Akamaru barked again. "What is that?"

"That spear," she clarified, pointing. "Shukaku's pike. It's something he came up with when we were kids. It doesn't really need chakra. In fact it really isn't even that strong."

"Then why the hell is he using it?!"

"Because it isn't that strong."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Kiba protested, flailing his fists up and down. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means what she said, idiot," Mai snapped, crossing her arms. "There's no chakra for Seimei to absorb, so he can't stop it. What happens when you get stabbed with a damn pike unprotected?"

"Huh?" Kiba glanced back at the fight.

Gaara reared his arm back, throwing the spear with all his strength like a pitcher. It hurtled forward, piercing the armor's lion's mouth dead center. From the way it stuck, Fumiko figured there was no actual armor in the mouth. Just skin to absorb the chakra.

The armor crumbled, but the pike remained stabbed into Seimei's stomach.

"How- how did you-?" he exclaimed in horror. "No- it's impossible!"

Kiba snorted. "Obviously not."

"So you are intelligent." Mai said. "At least you can be witty."

"What did you say?!"

"You wouldn't understand." Gaara said. "You're only a ninja tool. You turned your back on being human."

"Ridiculous," Seimei spat. "It can't be! It can't be!"

The glowing blue-green orbs at his head and feet exploded, releasing the captive chakra into the air to scatter. Then he wavered, and fell onto his own two feet, stumbling. No sooner had his shoes touched the ground did the sand suck them down and raise in tendrils around and above him, swirling to cover him ad bury him and crush him down. Seimei sank so fast it looked like he was falling through the earth.

"Giant Sand Burial!"

Gaara fell to one knee and slammed his hands into the sand. The ground rippled, pulsing like a heartbeat. When it finally settled, something sighed into the air- four different chakras dispersing at once, releasing themselves.

"Oh, yeah!" Uzumaki Naruto yelled.

"Gaara-sensei did it!" Matsuri cried with joy. "He beat him!"

"He sure did!" Uzumaki Naruto leaped forward off the stone, across the sand, which was safe to walk on now. "Hey, Gaara!"

Fumiko stepped out onto the small desert. Her back and legs still hurt from her earlier run in with a hard stone wall, but she didn't care- the pain in her mouth was actually worse. But she didn't really care about that either.

"Gaara!" she called, voice almost like a laugh. Gaara turned.

Then he fell.

...

Sakura felt at his neck. Fumiko knelt beside Gaara's head, touching his cheek lightly.

Finally Sakura let out a breath and smiled. "He's all right. He's just exhausted from having to use so much of his chakra."

"To think," Temari said, shaking her head. "He was able to suppress Shukaku ad do it all on his own."

"It's like you said," Fumiko said gently, lifting Gaara's head into her lap. His skin was cool. There was no fever, which meant he wasn't going to fall into another near-coma like he had the last time. "Gaara's stronger than you think."

"Yeah." Kankuro breathed.

...

The hospital at Konoha was just like she remembered it. The staff remembered her, and didn't seem to really even realize that she had been involved at all with the attack. She wasn't injured save for a mild concussion, and was released just hours after being admitted.

She wandered through the halls looking for Gaara's room. She was eventually joined by Lee, who spotted her and escaped the nurse pestering him about medications. Fumiko had promised the woman- who recognized her- that Lee wouldn't do any training while he was with her.

"So, Fumiko," Lee said. "It has been a while. How is your training?"

"Good, Lee, thanks for asking. I can more or less use a full diagnostic technique and mystical palm."

"That is what Sakura uses, unless I am mistaken."

"The glowing-green-hand-healing-thing."

Lee nodded. "Then it is what Sakura uses. So, is it your intention to become a medical ninja?"

Fumiko glanced at the numbers on the doors, looking for room 3-12. "No, not really. I just want to be able to use it. Hey, where's Choji, do you know? How has he been doing?"

Lee blinked. "Choji? Um. He is doing well, I think."

"Great! And Neji?"

"Neji is very excited that you are back," Lee said, then clapped a hand to his forehead, grimacing. "Ah! I was not supposed to tell you that! Please do not mention it to Neji!"

Fumiko blinked. "Sure. Oh, there it is," she said, spotting the right door. She slid it open.

Gaara laid stiffly in a large room unlike others that Fumiko had seen so far. There were multiple beds separated by gauzy white curtains, and there were no medical machines. She supposed this would be where people about ready to be released would stay.

Gaara's neck was bandaged, and it made it hard for him to turn his head to look when Fumiko bounded over.

"Fumiko?"

"Hey." she said, grinning. "So why's your neck all covered?"

"I'm not sure exactly." His eyes slid past her momentarily. "Hello, Lee."

"Hello."

...

"Fumiko."

"Neji." she said, mimicking his formal tone. Then she smiled and hugged him. "I missed you guys!"

Neji stiffened. Ten Ten stifled a giggle behind her as he awkwardly returned the hug with one hand, half patting her back until she let go. Then she let out a contented sigh. Neji shifted uncomfortably."Yes. Hello."

"Why so stuffy? Are you injured?"

"No."

"But then-"

"No."

...

"Hey, Choji! Gaara, look, it's Choji! And Ino and Shikamaru!"

Gaara stopped as Fumiko stood on her tiptoes to look through the open window-like hole looking into the barbeque restaurant. Open grills burned at every table, where customers chatted and cooked their own meats. Directly below her, Choji was munching away at a rack of ribs.

"What? A restaurant?" Gaara looked over the edge.

Choji waved up at her, mouth full of meat for a second before he swallowed it all with one big gulp. "Ahh! Hey, Fumiko. What's up? You hungry?"

"Choji, always thinking about your stomach," Ino muttered. "Look at her, she's obviously on a diet."

"On a diet?" Fumiko laughed. "Hey Ino, do you know I carry bottled sugar around in my satchel? Hey, Gaara, you hungry?" she asked, looking over at her friend. He'd been released from the hospital not too long ago.

"No," he said, but he was sniffing the air curiously.

Fumiko laughed. "Yeah, okay. Let's eat."

Ino blanched. "Whaat? Are you serious?"

...

"Checkmate."

"Oh, sugar."

"Don't feel too bad about it," Nara Shikaku said easily as Fumiko tried to figure out where she'd gone wrong. "You get a lot farther than most."

"Dad," Shikamaru protested. "You don't just tell people that!"

...

"Oh, Mai, there you are." Fumiko said. You didn't come back to the Nara's last night, so I wasn't sure."

"Nah, me and Kiba were sparring."

Kiba howled with laughter. "Her version of sparring is trying her absolute hardest to cut me to ribbons even if I knock away her swords and pummel my face in. I love it. She's just like an Inuzuka."

...

"Oh my sugar, look, Gaara!" Fumiko whispered. She stayed absolutely still.

"Do you guys want to feed him?" Shikamaru said. "I always have feed on me. The deer are pretty friendly."

A little deer regarded them with shiny black eyes. Gaara regarded him straight back- and for good reason too, Fumiko thought. This was the first animal not to dart away from him in fear of his chakra.

Short little antlers studded his head. He had a shiny light brown and white coat and cute little hooves that clopped as he edged closer.

"Aww. of course I do! He's so cute!"

Shikamaru reached into a bag in his pocket and pulled out a handful of something that looked like grain. He poured it into her open palm. "Here. Just hold it out and he should come to you."

Fumiko knelt, reaching out her hand tentatively. The little deer raised his head like he was scenting it, and then he trotted closer. Gaara didn't move beside her, watching almost curiously at the little animal as it stretched out it's neck and took tiny nibbles of feed out of her hand. The deer's little tongue licked her fingers. Fumiko giggled.

Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag. Here I go for a few seconds thinking that you aren't like every other girl in the universe, and then you have to go and prove me wrong."

...

A week after the fight with Seimei, Fumiko, Gaara, Mai, Matsuri, Temari, and Kankuro were gathered at the gates, packed and ready to go. With them saying farewell was Shikamaru, wearing the flak jacket standard for Chuunin. Fumiko smiled.

"We owe you one." Temari said.

Shikamaru laughed almost awkwardly. "Ah, skip it. We're just returning the favor for what you guys did for us. Next time you'll owe us one."

"Well at least this time you didn't get all choked up. That's an improvement."

Shikamaru sighed and looked down, eyes pinching into a frustrated frown. "Agh, sheesh. Women. You always gotta get the last dig in."

"What about him?" Gaara asked.

"Huh?" Shikamaru asked, cocking his head. "Oh- you mean Naruto. He leaves the village this morning to begin his training with Jiraiya."

"I saw him at the ramen stand earlier," Fumiko said. "He told me about it."

"Jiraiya?" Kankuro asked, surprised. "One of the Sannin?"

Shikamaru's small, lazy smile pinched. He shifted back, hands in his pockets. "Yeah, it's gonna be such a drag. When he gets back, he'll be stronger and more obnoxious then ever."

Gaara didn't quite nod before turning. "Goodbye."

"Bye, Shikamaru." Fumiko said happily before following. She waved and then turned to catch up with Gaara. Temari and Kankuro and Matsuri and Mai followed. "Thanks for showing me the deer and letting us stay at your house."

"Fumiko'll teach me a bit, and when I see you next I'll beat you at Shogi." Mai said by way of goodbye, raising a hand as she walked away.

"See you later," Temari said.

"Yeah," Shikamaru called back. "See ya."

Fumiko walked alongside Gaara, adjusting her medical bag's strap. Matsuri darted back to talk to Shikamaru one last time before hurrying to rejoin them on the road. When she did, Mai stepped up beside her.

"Right, you know what this means?" she asked.

"What?"

"When we get back, we're gonna train ourselves into the ground. Now that you know how to use that Dohjo of yours, it would be pathetic if you got kidnapped again. Next time you'll kick their asses to the Land of Snow."

"You ready, Gaara?" Fumiko asked.

"To go back?" Gaara smiled. "You know, I think it's long overdue."

At that, Fumiko had to laugh.


	34. Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashbacks still have no italicizing.

Fumiko turned onto her side, curling up under the warm quilt. She tucked the corer under her chin, inhaling the scent of chocolate and sand that seemed to permeate it. Fumiko let out a breath and closed her eyes.

Then she turned onto her back, sighing and putting her hands on her stomach.

She stared up at the ceiling, which was dotted with framed and unframed pictures tacked to it of various things, from Shukaku to buildings of Suna to trees to stars to animals to people. A few of them were of Gaara.

It had been two months since the Matsuri incident. Not a particularly long amount of time had passed, but already everything had changed. Fumiko, realizing finally that perhaps learning how to fight a little better would be a good idea, since she nearly always stepped into Gaara's battles.

So now Mai ad Gaara were her teachers, and a Bo staff was her weapon. She loved swirling it around, but her lack of balance was proving difficult, and Fumiko just knew she could make improvements. Lately her body had been sore, sore, sore and she only drew in straight lines.

Usually, Fumiko was a heavy sleeper, and usually, whenever she closed her eyes, she fell asleep and stayed asleep. But tonight she only tossed and turned, stretching and curling, trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep in.

Outside, the rain poured, a soothing white noise mixed with claps of thunder and white flashes of lightning that lit up her entire room with light. The images in her room flickered like apparitions.

She couldn't stop thinking about it. July seventeenth- the anniversary of the death of the Fourth Kazekage. All throughout the day, storm clouds had been roiling over the village, like it sensed the gloomy, mourning atmosphere. It hadn't stopped her from going outside and looking around for Gaara, who hadn't been at the tower.

"Gaara! Hey, Gaara, are you here?"

Fumiko had looked in a lot of places, including the swings and the training fields, but really, she had known exactly where he was. Only, usually, he waited for her to go with him.

"Huh?" Gaara turned, startled. "Oh."

"I thought I'd find you here," she said softly, looking down at the tiny marker at Gaara's feet. The air in the mausoleum was cold and stale and dry, and the stone walls echoed her words and her scraping footsteps like spirits all around them. "It doesn't seem like it's been almost a year... does it."

"No," he said, and turned back around to stare at it. "I didn't come here before."

"We haven't been here in a few months," Fumiko realized.

"Why is it so cold in here?" he asked like she would know, scowling. "Everywhere else is hot. It's almost like even the mausoleum mourns him."

"I know it's hard, Gaara." Fumiko stepped up beside him. "But your dad was loved by a lot of people. It only makes sense that they would mourn for him on his anniversary."

"You would mourn me," Gaara said, eyes furrowing. "Naruto. And perhaps Kankuro and Temari as well. But compared to a village, what is that?"

But compared to a village, what is that? He had asked her, looking for all the world like a boy being crushed by stone, outcasted and pushed aside. Fumiko stared at the pencil tones of Shukaku, screaming for blood, leaves the size of dirt specks breezing across his face.

"You won't die, Gaara." Fumiko put a hand on his shoulder. "And... isn't that enough?"

"It is, I just... I..." he growled in frustration. "Someone like him..."

"Rasa was a good leader." Fumiko smiled. "And you will be too, soon, I think."

Gaara started. "What makes you say that? I'm not even Chuunin, and I solo most of my missions anyway. Except for when you come barging in, I suppose."

"Ne, that's in the past," Fumiko said with a giggle, waving her hand. "I don't know why. I just have this feeling that you're going to be really important someday. Not to me, but to a lot of people."

He flinched. "I don't... I don't want to be important!"

"It's okay, Gaara." She shook her head, squeezing his shoulder. Gaara's skin was cold underneath the fabric. "You won't be like him. You're different then him. You see people as people and not as necessary sacrifices."

"What about all those people? All those people I've killed?" Gaara stared hard at the stone floor. A rectangle was lied with thin black lines- the scars of the top of a coffin fitting just right into the hole. "Sometimes, I wonder if they're with me."

"Nothing is bad."

"How can you say that?"

"Nothing is bad," Fumiko repeated, then smiled. "Look, everything that happens happens. If you think about it, all of those bad things that have happened... your life is really amazing, Gaara. Nobody else has the experiences you have. Or that I have."

"I would rather them not happen at all."

Fumiko held his elbow and leaned her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes. She smiled softly.

"You don't have to hate him, Gaara."

...

Gaara laid on his back in his bed, hands behind his head, staring up at his ceiling covered with stars and sheep and swirls of color. He couldn't sleep, and that was pretty normal, but this time it wasn't because Shukaku gave him night terrors. It was a strange, uncomfortable restlessness.

The sunset last week had been beautiful. A perfect contrast to today's gravesite.

The grave didn't bother him anymore. Gaara had realized that he wasn't Rasa, and just because he could become great didn't mean he would become like him. But his father, despite being such a bad family figure... how had he done it? How had he done it?

He didn't know how... but he would have to try.

"Gaara, let it go. I don't wanna say this, but..." Kankuro sighed. He seemed to pause for a moment, struggling for words. "You know how they see you. You're a weapon of terror."

Gaara just stared out at the desert sunset. Fumiko had been here earlier, with him, but Mai had come to call her home hours ago. She'd whined, of course- I want to see the sunset- but in the end she had left him. Gaara shifted his eyes up farther, looking now to the orange sky.

Kankuro was here.

"Seriously, leaving us and joining the regular troops is not gonna be an easy thing. Their full of jonin who think pretty poorly of you. And most of the villagers... they're about as terrified of you as they've always been."

"I know that." Gaara said. Kankuro started. Gaara looked down, words escaping his mouth before he could think them through; staring at the shifting sand. "I've always known... But doing nothing at all will almost certainly bring even greater pain. I know what I must do."

There was a moment where Gaara didn't even breathe. He stared at it, the desert, his home. His home, where nobody ever loved him, his home, where he would probably never quite fit in, but he had to try. "I must clear my own path. And perhaps then... the day will come..."

Kankuro said nothing behind him. Gaara's eyes narrowed slightly, jaw clenching. "... I can be like them."

...

Fumiko startled as there was a rush of feathers. Asuka squawked, feathers dripping wet, shooting in through the leather-taped still busted window flap to divebomb into her bed.

Fumiko sat up quickly, crossing her legs as Asuka flopped back to her talons. "Asuka?"

Asuka screeched. Fumiko shushed her quickly, afraid the noise would awaken the entire house. She yawned sleepily, rubbing her eyes, and took the little pouch, pulling on the drawstring and pulled out the little sheath of paper.

"... Who..?"

Fumiko scanned it quickly. And then, in the dark of her room, hair tousled from her pillow falling over her face, she smiled. A few messily scribbled words was all the letter contained- 'I haven't slept in four days. Hello. Asuka found me. -Lee.'

"What?"

"You don't have to hate him," she said. "Maybe you don't have to miss him... but you shouldn't hate him, Gaara. Even if you think you have to."

"How can you say that? How? After everything he's done, how can you still forgive him?"

"I didn't forgive him." Fumiko said. "Gaara, I was never angry at him. Whatever he did, there must have been a reason. I don't believe he hated you, Gaara, I never have. I think he loved you, in his own way."

"He tried to kill me!" Gaara's fists clenched. "He tried to kill you!"

Fumiko gave a lopsided smile. She wasn't sure if he could see it or not- her head was still on his shoulder and he was glaring holes into the tombstone. "In his own way," she repeated. "I think he was confused. Mistaken. I know he sucked and you don't respect him anymore but just try, Gaara. Try to let him go."

"Let him go..."

"You don't have to forgive him for what he did. But you have to accept it. Him. I'm sorry, Gaara. But you... you're special. And he... he's dead. Someday maybe, we can talk to him. Together. But you're killing a memory."

"You're... a memory. That's what he is, isn't he?"

Fumiko sat up, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. For a moment, she listened to the quiet sounds of the house, toes curling against the cold, gritty wood floor. Nothing stirred. Then, slowly, she reached out for her prosthetic. When she connected it, she stood, and quietly made her way out of the bedroom.

...

Gaara listened as the rain pounded his huge window, like some terrible monster was trying to knock down the tower. But it wasn't a monster, and besides... Gaara wasn't scared of monsters. He never had been.

"I want to be a part of this village." 

Clouds dotted the sunset, still huge and full and bright. Clouds like that weren't common in Suna, and they only meant one thing: it was going to rain. Hard. Soon.

Gaara forged ahead, words bleeding together in his head and spilling out. "So... I'm aiming for the title of Kazekage, as a shinobi of the Sand."

... Gaara..."

"I will work hard... to connect to the people of these village. Watching Uzumaki Naruto... being with Fumiko... it has brought me clarity. With her, it was different. She cared. But I still couldn't... Until I met him, my ties to any one else brought pain, and sorrow." 

Gaara stepped further toward the edge of his little world, mind lost. "But he was always pushing me... to redefine those ties. I think I finally understand. Fumiko isn't... the only friend I can have in this world. The suffering and sadness of life... and the joy... these are feelings that can be shared with those around me."

He didn't know why he was telling Kankuro all this. It was an idea he'd had for a while, brooding, and he was supposed... to tell somebody else first. But... this felt right.

"It was them," he said. "The whole reason... he has felt the same pain as I have. He taught me that I can change the path my life will follow. One day, Kankuro, I'd like to become something precious to others, too. Not just to be viewed as some hideous weapon, understood by only a few." 

Here he turned. Kankuro looked frozen, trapped between gaping and smiling. Gaara smiled.

"But as Suna's next Kazekage."

"Gaara... I..."

"Please understand, Kankuro. You... you are the first I've told."

"You- you mean, you-" Kankuro seemed to lose all his air. "You haven't told-"

"Fumiko?" Gaara turned again to look at the sunset, which was fading. He laughed softly. "No, not yet. I didn't mean to tell you first, but... I'm glad I did."

Gaara sat up, sighing out a long, heavy breath.

Then he turned, pushing himself out of bed.

It was crazy. It was pouring outside, sweeping everything away, probably a whirlpool of wet sand and stinging rain you couldn't see two feet through. He could hear the wind howling too; any kind of cover he tried to bring would be ripped out of his hands.

Gaara opened his bedroom door anyway, grabbing his red shirt from off the nightstand.

...

Fumiko's coat soaked through basically the second she stepped out the door. A flash of lightning made her jump, but she turned quickly, locking the door behind her. She'd left a note on her bed telling everyone where she was going, but she doubted anyone would wake anytime soon.

She stepped out into the deluge of rain, raising her arms to try and keep the drops out of her eyes, and squinted forward. She started to walk, carefully; because the mud was starting to suck at her prosthetic and the foot-high rush of water was trying to bowl her over.

Gaara was going to call her an idiot, and quite frankly, her GPA probably needed another test. But still she wrapped her sopping wet cloak tight around her shoulders and forged ahead.

Somebody from a higher window yelled at her to get inside before she caught pneumonia, but she just looked up and waved and tried to shout over the pounding of water before continuing, shoe making a strange sucking noise as she walked.

Fumiko passed the Academy, which rattled and groaned as the wind battered tables and sharp things around inside. The wind roared- it had long ago stolen the bandanna she'd worn in an attempt to keep it from whipping her hair about.

Fumiko puttered through the village, making her way slowly but surely to the tower. It was a fifteen, twenty minute walk on it's own, but with this rain, it would be at least a half hour until she managed to get there. If she tried to shunshin in this weather, she'd die.

...

"Gah," Gaara muttered, the crushing rain ripping his words away before even he heard them. "It's freezing."

Water tore at his clothes, weighing them down, and every so often he slid backwards as the river of sand moved faster than his feet. Wind froze it onto his skin- not literally, but close enough. His teeth chattered, and Gaara was pretty sure his fingers' blue tinge was a little more than a trick of the lightning.

Fumiko was going to call him silly, running out into a Suna downpour with nothing but ordinary clothes and mismatched sandals. He needed to have his head checked- perfect immune system be damned, this couldn't be healthy.

Thunder boomed, rattling the nearby windows. Gaara didn't flinch, because thunder didn't scare him, but he did curse and jump out of the way as the miniature waterfalls burrowing through the village sent a giant chunk of something flooding his way.

Wood, he realized as it almost took his leg off, but he managed to move in time, and it rushed past him to harass something else. A piece of a vendor's cart.

Gaara glanced at the little clothing store as he passed by it. The lights were off, but everything inside looked dry enough, save for one leak in the corner that dripped into an oversized bucket. Already it was overflowing, pouring across the tile floors.

Everything was a strange shade of hazy grey. Gaara couldn't lift his eyes very high without the rain gouging them out, so he raised his right arm to block his face and squinted his eyes, making them smaller targets.

He hadn't bothered to bring his sand- even if he was attacked, sand in this rain would be less than useless. Still, Gaara felt lighter than usual, like he had forgotten something, but at least it made it easier to push through the mucky, swirling earth.

It usually took him five to ten minutes to get there on his own, especially if he took to the rooftops, but that was out of the question now. The buildings were slick with rain- if he tried to roof-jump, it would send him right back to the hospital, and he wasn't exactly eager to break a limb.

...

Yackshup!" was the strange noise Fumiko made when the water pushed her prosthetic out from under her body, sending her tumbling to the ground in a tangle of cloak and limbs and miscellaneous floating objects. Something that looked suspiciously like the top of a cart skittered by on the other side of the road.

She scrambled to get back up to her feet, but the water seemed to wrap around her and spin her out of control like a top, whirling and whirling, tumbling like a weed. At least she was rolling in the same general direction as she'd been walking.

Fumiko yelped, slid, and fell back down once before finally propping herself up on the side of a building. She took a deep breath, shivering from head to toe, momentarily covered by the outcropping of the hourglass-shaped apartment. Then she plunged back into the nasty weather.

Maybe I should learn how to ice skate.

The thought was so random and so relevant that Fumiko burst out laughing right there. Rainwater poured into her mouth, but at least it was clean, and besides, she'd been thirsty anyway.

...

Gaara cursed. Loudly.

He pulled himself out of the sopping river, growling slightly, mouth turned down in an intense scowl. He wiped the hair out of his eyes, hoping nobody had just seen him flip into the ground on his butt like an idiot.

The whole situation made him realize that he had never learned how to swim. He hated water.

Which made him question why he was even outside in the middle of the street while it was screaming rain, shivering, cursing out water and dodging usually harmless (but now deadly) objects being swept through the streets like carriages. Right, he thought with a mental sigh. Fumiko's house.

He stopped to help some poor villager that had gotten stuck out in the rain into his home, which was conveniently along the way to his destination, and the man thanked him upside down and backwards despite his being a jinchuriki before rushing back into his house. He offered to let Gaara in, but Gaara politely declined and continued on his way.

The rain was lightening just a little bit, so it felt less like he was being punched and more like he was being tapped, which he supposed was a good thing, not that it really mattered anymore.

He was almost halfway to her house. Now that he was really thinking about it, he realized exactly how stupid this idea was. Fumiko's family wasn't going to let them into their house at the dead of night in the middle of a storm, sopping wet and pissed. But he was already halfway there, so he continued on, hoping they would at least give him an umbrella.

...

The halfway point between Fumiko's house and the Kazekage tower was, oddly enough, a little empty building like a store that had been vacated and left hollow.

It was one of the only real 'shops' in Suna- there were large shopping areas like malls, each store stacked on top of another in typical Sunagakure apartment-style fashion, and there were vendors. But for some reason, this one had been built without multiple floors, just as tall a building as any set of apartments, with one ground floor and a lot of negative space.

This is where she chose to take a break, sidling up to the doorstep where there wasn't any piece of the river, under the hourglass curve so far above her head that blocked out the worst of the rain. She wasn't exactly tired, but sloshing through all of this rain was getting harder.

She was only about eight or nine minutes away now. That was good.

Takig a deep breath and laughing just to lift her own spirits- an odd sound in the thrum of the rain and crashing of thunder- she made to step back into the brunt of the storm, prosthetic poised over the ground.

And then she saw the human-sized smudge of red trudging down the street in her direction.

"Hello!" she said. The rain made it a little harder to tell who it was, but a second later, her body registered the chakra signature. "Oh! Gaara!"

She hurried to the center of the street. Gaara stopped just in front of her, looking so surprised that Fumiko couldn't help but laugh- Gaara blinked at her, confused.

"What are you doing out in the rain?"

"What are you doing out in the rain?" he countered.

"I asked first."

"I was going to your house."

Fumiko burst out laughing. "I was going to your house!"

"Why in the world are you going to my house at three in the morning while it's pouring down rain outside? That's dangerous, you know. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Fumiko's grin stretched. "Do you want me to copy you again?"

Gaara scowled. "I couldn't sleep."

Fumiko giggled. Strange how their parallels were working right now. "I couldn't sleep."

"Stop doing that."

"Why? It's true!" she sang, laughter in her voice. She had to talk loudly to be heard over the rain, but she usually talked loudly, so it wasn't all that much of a difference. "So what did you need?"

"So what did you need?"

"I asked for that," she said, still smiling. "I don't know. I was thinking about earlier today, and I couldn't sleep, and so I just thought I would come see you and we could hang out for a while."

"In the rain."

"In the rain," she confirmed. "So what about you?"

"I was thinking of something that happened... a few days ago..." Gaara shifted. There was stress in the lines of his face that were hard to make out with water pouring over them, but it was there, stress and anxiety. "And I wanted to tell you about it."

Fumiko's grin tipped higher. "In the rain?"

Gaara smiled. "In the rain."

"Weird how we both made it halfway at the same time. I know you were moving faster than me. I must have left earlier." she mused. "So your house or my house?"

"Which one is more likely to let the other in?"

"Your house." Fumiko laughed. "But Temari's gonna yell at us if we wake her up."

...

"I feel stupid walking back to my own house after leaving and walking in the rain for ten minutes," Gaara admitted. "Kami- you're freezing! You're never cold."

"I'm never rained on, either, I guess."

"It's not funny. You're shivering like crazy." Gaara said with concern, having wound an arm around her shoulder while they walked. "You know you get sick easily."

"It is s-so funny."

A particularly loud smash of thunder made her eep and press closer to Gaara's side. Even Gaara twitched a little and looked up at the sky, squinting his eyes. A flash of lightning illuminated his face for a split second, painting his skin entirely white save for his kanji, which glowed stark red.

"It doesn't look like the rain is going to stop anytime soon," he sighed.

"The last bad s-storm we had lasted four days," Fumiko said thoughtfully. "Th-this one isn't as bad, though, otherwise we'd b-both be s-swimming down the s-street."

"There's the tower," Gaara said, pointing, and they rushed down the street to get to the door. Stepping up onto the threshold for the giant building, Gaara reached out to open the door. He grazed it with his fingers once before the door flung open on it's own.

Temari put her hands on her hips.

"What do you idiots think you're doing?"

"Oh, w-we were just ou-out walking-"

"In the rain-"

"'Cause the cold f-felt nice-"

Temari pinched the bridge of her nose. "Idiots," she muttered, but moved aside so they could get in, which they hurriedly did, scrambling to get out of the freezing rain.

"H-hot chocolate," Fumiko said first.

...

Leaving her soaking wet clothes to dry in the bathtub, Fumiko wrapped the towel around herself and padded into Temari's bedroom. Gaara was probably taking a shower or something in his bathroom, and Fumiko had brought a spare change of clothes from his room to change into.

Sitting on the bed for balance, she pulled her shirt over her head, then ran one of her fingers under the tight, high turtleneck collar to get the wrinkles to straighten out against her throat.

She couldn't help being curious about what Gaara wanted to tell her. It wasn't bad, she did't think, otherwise he would have looked guilty and not just anxious. It must have been triggered by the talk they had had in the mausoleum- about not being like his father.

She checked herself in the mirror while she brushed her hair out. It almost reached the center of her back now, that light brown she got from her mother. Her lips weren't blue anymore, thank Kami, but her nose was a little red.

There was a rap at the door. "Fumiko, are you done? I want to get back to sleep if you don't mind."

"I'm done," she called, putting the hairbrush down on the dresser. She would get it later, when Temari was awake the next morning and less likely to bite her head off.

"Gaara's in the kitchen," Temari grumbled as she stumbled back to bed.

She was asleep before Fumiko even left the room. Carefully, Fumiko closed the door so as not to wake her. A few doors down, she could hear Kankuro snoring. Fumiko yawned, stretching her arms up above her head, and made her way to the kitchen.

...

"You're doing it wrong," she said, looking over Gaara's shoulder.

"How am I doing it wrong? I'm following the instructions on the box."

"Well, the box is wrong," she said, swiping the mug of hot water away before he could ruin a perfectly good packet of hot chocolate. "You have to use milk, silly."

"What?"

"Here, I'll do it." she said cheerfully, tipping the steaming mug of water into the sink. Fumiko trotted to the fridge and grabbing a gallon jug of milk. It was half empty, but there were three or four more behind it- the Kazekage had had a pretty big appetite and thus, a huge fridge. She loved this kitchen, with it's many islands and pretty counters and supplies.

She thunked it down onto the counter next to the microwave. Gaara watched curiously as she filled two mugs with milk and stuck them in the microwave.

"What's so different about using milk?"

"Haven't you ever made hot chocolate before?"

He gave her a deadpan stare. "Considering that it's usually about a hundred and fifty degrees outside, no, Fumiko. I'm surprised we even had any in the back of the pantry."

The microwave beeped. Fumiko opened it and quickly took the mugs out, wiping her fingers on her shorts when they burned. "Not even on Christmas and stuff? You guys never make hot chocolate?"

"We'd get fevers from heat stroke!" Gaara protested. Fumiko bumped his shoulder with hers playfully as she patted a packet of mix into both cups.

"No way. Even when it is a hundred fifty degrees outside, your skin is always cold."

"That's because-" Gaara paused, frowning. "... Actually, I don't know why that is. Huh."

"Anyway, milk makes it taste better. Using water just makes it like drinking wet hot chocolate mix." She held out a mug to Gaara, who cautiously took it. "Here. Taste."

"I'll wait until it stops steaming," he said dubiously just as Fumiko took a swig from hers.

"Gaak! Hot!"

...

About ten minutes later they were settled in Gaara's room. The TV was on, playing some movie or other on demand, but she wasn't really paying attention to it. The both of them were practically hiding under a thick red blanket with their hot cocoa, sipping at them in silence. Gaara had gone quiet a few minutes ago.

Fumiko was eyeing a blank space on the wall when he spoke.

"Fumiko... the way I am with you... why can't I be like that with other people?"

Fumiko started, eyes darting to him. Gaara was staring down into his cocoa, which was almost empty, swirling it around with his spoon. "Gaara?"

"Happy," he said, fingers clenching on the cup's handle. "Relaxed. When I'm with you, I'm more human, but whenever I try to talk to other people I... I don't know. I'm... scary."

"Oh." Fumiko was at a loss for a second. The mood had suddenly changed, going from carefree to somber, but that was probably just it- he didn't understand. "Well... you trust me."

"But I trust them too," he said. "Naruto, and the others."

Fumiko took a sip of her drink. "Gaara, am I a person to you?"

Gaara frowned. "What?"

"Them, they're people," she said. "Those villagers out there, they're people too. You've always been nervous of people. But not me. You never saw me as a threat, potential pain. I'm there with you, you know? You trust me because I've been there for everything, I've gone through it all with you. You trust them because... well, why do you trust anyone?"

Gaara stared at her. His lips parted just slightly.

"What?" she said. "I can be deep too, you know. You trust them, you hold them close to your heart. But you and me, we're Fumiko and Gaara. You just... I can't explain it. I don't know how. But someday, Gaara, when people aren't threats and pain isn't destruction... you'll trust them with your heart."

Gaara took a deep breath. "I- I want to. Fumiko, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"What is it?" The blanket fell of her shoulders, pooling instead on her back, but she didn't bother reaching for it.

"I want to be a part of this village," he began. "More than just a tool or a shinobi. More than a jinchuriki. More than someone people can lean on when they need a one man mission completed. I want... to mean more than that."

Fumiko didn't say anything.

"I want to..."

""I don't know why. I just have this feeling that you're going to be really important someday. Not to me, but to a lot of people."

He flinched. "I don't... I don't want to be important!"

"It's okay, Gaara." She shook her head, squeezing his shoulder. Gaara's skin was cold underneath the fabric. "You won't be like him. You're different then him."

"I want to become Kazekage!"

He was breathing hard, eyes boring into hers like she held the answer to everything. Like she could tell him if it was possible.

Fumiko didn't say anything for a minute. She stood, blanket falling completely off, and hobbled slowly to the nightstand to put down her drink. It sloshed as she did so, almost empty save for a few spoonfuls.

"Fumiko?"

She turned to face him, looking right into his eyes, which were wide, staring. His cheeks were starting to redden out of embarrassment. Fumiko smiled, reaching one hand out to help him up.

"Let's do it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for TOF! Starting up on it's sequel, Between Love and Everything Else, as you read!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is Pikapixie The Demigod from Fanfiction.net coming over to join A03! This story is already posted there as well, along with the other 2 finished and 1 pending works in the series, which I will also post here.
> 
> WARNING: BEGINNER'S WRITING UP AHEAD! It improves! I promise! I'll be posting chapters as I have time to copypaste them over! :)


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